A bottle of poisoned whiskey led to the arrest of a gang of 30 saboteurs in the Ramallah and Jerusalem regions, Israeli security sources disclosed today. The gang includes members of El Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Their apprehension yielded three caches of machine guns, hand grenades and high explosives. The saboteurs are suspected of murdering Taisir Luzia, a prominent Jerusalem Arab who was poisoned. They are also accused of throwing grenades at the Herod Gate in old Jerusalem and planting explosives in the license bureau and the branch office of the Israel Discount Bank in Ramallah.
According to security sources, the round-up of the gang came about accidentally when an official of the West Bank military government was the luncheon guest of a local Arab dignitary. The guest was offered whiskey from an apparently unused bottle but the aroma and color did not seem right to him and he declined the drink in favor of a brandy. Later the official went through the files of the Luzia case and noted that the Arab had died after drinking whiskey from a bottle that had been sent to him as a gift. The senders were traced and ultimately confessed the poison plot and implicated other members of the gang. Security sources said more arrests are expected.
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