Police are investigating a series of terrorist bombings in Jerusalem, Nablus and Hadera Friday. The only casualties occurred in Hadera where three persons were slightly injured when an explosive charge detonated under a bench in the bus terminal. They were treated at a hospital and discharged.
No one was injured when a bomb exploded in a Jerusalem park near the Town Hall. In Nablus an explosive charge found attached to a bus was dismantled before it went off. The bus was employed carrying local Arabs to and from jobs in Israel. Although scores of Arabs were rounded up for questioning in each of the incidents, only one arrest was reported today. Police are holding Rashdi Darwish Mahmoud of Nablus who has reportedly confessed to placing the explosive charge on the bus. He is also suspected of involvement in other acts of sabotage.
Police have eye-witness descriptions of two suspects in the Hadera bombing. One was described as a taxi driver and the other as a man seen leaving a plastic bag on a bench in the bus station shortly before the explosion. Police Minister Shlomo Hillel said the apparent aim of the terrorist acts was to disrupt the trend toward normal relations and co-existence between Israelis and Arabs from the administered territories, particularly those working in Israel. Hillel observed that Arabs suffered more than Israelis from these sporadic acts of violence. He said that 28 Jewish soldiers and civilians were killed by terrorist acts since the 1967 Six-Day War compared to a death toll among Arabs of 240 in the same period.
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