Postmortems Confirm That Bodies of Terrorists Were Not Mutilated

Postmortems performed by Israeli pathologists on the bodies of five Palestinian terrorists killed by Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon on Dec. 25 confirmed Israel’s assertions that the bodies had not been mutilated by explosives and burned, as charged by the Dutch contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The results of the autopsies, disclosed over the weekend, coincided with the visit here of The Netherlands Defense Minister Pieter de Geus. He said yesterday that the different versions of the incident would not damage relations between Holland and Israel. De Geus, who spent several days with the Dutch soldiers of UNIFIL before coming here, told reporters that the clash with terrorists on Christmas Day had been an “operational event” and was a matter for the UN, not Holland.

According to UN sources, reportedly based on accounts by Dutch soldiers, the Israelis blew up and burned the bodies after killing the terrorists. The commander of the Israeli patrol involved said the terrorists were killed by hand grenades thrown into a cave where they were hiding.

Gen, Emmanuel Erskine, Commander of UNIFIL, proposed that postmortems be done on the bodies by UN medical personnel. Gen, Avigdor Ben-Gal, commander of Israeli forces in the north, agreed but UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim banned the procedure on grounds that it would breach the UN’s neutrality in the dispute between Dutch soldiers and the Israelis.

Premier Menachem Begin, who met with the Dutch Minister Friday, expressed surprise that Holland and the UN had issued their statement alleging mutilation without first checking with Israeli authorities.