PLO Official Wounded by Bomb; Arab Diplomats Ask for Protection

Arab diplomats here asked the French government for protection today in the aftermath of Friday’s bomb explosion that seriously wounded Mahmoud Hamshari, representative of the Palestine Liberation Office, in his Paris apartment. Arab ambassadors requested Foreign Minister Maurice Schumann to “have French police take all appropriate measures to ensure the safety of the Arab colony in France.” They also called on the French police to “arrest and bring to justice those responsible for the crime.”

Hamshari, a 35-year-old Jordanian citizen, was questioned by police at the Cochin Hospital where he is being treated for leg and abdominal wounds and second degree burns. His assailants have not been identified. Sources here have discounted earlier Arab claims that two armed Israelis, arrested in Paris after a gun-battle with French police near Hamshari’s home last week were implicated in the bombing. The pair, Yaakov Rak, 20 and Michel Bouhap, 19, were described by Israeli sources as petty crooks wanted by the Israeli police who had entered France illegally.

Police accounts of the attack on Hamshari indicated that it was the work of highly trained professionals skilled in modern technology. According to the police, the bomb was triggered by a remote control radio mechanism. The assailants rang Hamshshari on the phone, according to the police, and when he answered they detonated the bomb which had been concealed under the telephone table.

Rumors circulating here today claimed that Hamshari was not only the local PLO representative, but a highly placed member of the El Fatah central command. One rumor described him as the man in charge of Arab terrorist operations in Western Europe.