With eight Arab suspects in custody Sunday, police continued to search for terrorists responsible for the pipe bomb explosion that killed a Canadian teen-ager and injured 18 other people early Saturday afternoon on a crowded Tel Aviv beach.
Marnie Kimmelman, 17, of the Toronto suburb of Willowdale, a member of a student tour group, died of massive internal injuries while undergoing surgery at Ichilov Hospital.
Three of those injured, identified as Bert Brand and Steven Finger, both 19, and Hilary Mason, 18, were Canadians. The other victims, all Israelis, were not seriously hurt.
No terrorist organization has so far claimed responsibility for the bombing.
After the bombing, infuriated Israelis rampaged through the beach area, attacking every Arab in sight and exhorting police to “break their heads.”
One Jew was arrested for assaulting an Israel Television cameraman.
The roundup of suspects began almost immediately, but some Arabs were detained for their own protection.
Of the dozen or more questioned, eight were held, including two 17-year-olds who were remanded in custody in Tel Aviv juvenile court Sunday morning. The adult suspects will be charged on Monday.
The detainees are from Nablus in the West Bank and Gaza and Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.
The apparently homemade bomb, concealed in a beach bag between two beach chairs, detonated at about 2:30 p.m. local time, spewing shrapnel into the closely packed crowd.
SEVERE INTERNAL INJURY
Kimmelman was apparently nearest to the explosion. She was thought at first to have suffered only moderate injuries, but severe internal damage was found at the hospital.
“A major vein in her stomach was torn, as well as her liver,” said Ichilov’s deputy director, Dr. Bianca Lederman.
The teen-ager was one of 80 Canadian university students on a six-week tour of Israel sponsored by the Canadian Zionist Federation.
In Toronto, B’nai Brith Canada demanded Sunday that the Canadian government announce immediately the suspension of all relations with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
B’nai Brith Canada’s government relations director, Ian Kagedan, noted, “Canada’s steadily eroding support for Israel, combined with its ongoing contacts with the PLO, encourage terrorism day by day.”
In a letter to External Affairs Minister Joe Clark, B’nai Brith President Marilyn Wainberg and Executive Vice President Frank Dimant wrote, “We have long argued that Canada’s actions do nothing more than give confidence to the PLO and other terrorist groups operating in the Middle East that their political deceptions are effective, and that their murderous efforts will ultimately bear fruit.”
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