Security Forces Net Arabs Responsible for Bombing 5 Apartment Houses in Haifa

Israeli security forces have rounded up the gang of saboteurs responsible for bombing five apartment houses in Haifa last month in which two persons were killed. Police said that six Arab residents of Acre, a town across Haifa Bay, have confessed to the crime.

In another communique, security officials announced the capture of two other terrorist gangs, one in East Jerusalem and one in Hebron. Twenty persons have been detained.

Two of the men apprehended in Haifa are drivers, two are fishermen and one is a carpenter. They are believed to have gotten their explosives by boat, a method which is apparently still in use. The Israel Navy disclosed that it captured a boat load of terrorists with high explosives several days ago Some were identified as former residents of Israel and were apparently delivering explosives to a terrorist cell in northern Israel.

The seizure of the boat led to the round-up of the Haifa bombing gang, a security official said. And the confession of one of the latter, a former resident of Halhul village near Hebron, resulted in the arrests in Hebron and East Jerusalem. The West Bank gangs belonged to El Fatah and another underground group that calls itself the “Popular Freedom Organization.” Large caches of arms were seized. The terrorists were said to have specialized in throwing hand grenades at busses filled with sightseers. According to security officials, they were also responsible for throwing a grenade at bus in Halhul and at a car in which the military governor of Hebron was riding. In addition, they planted explosives at a fence around the Israel Broadcasting Services headquarters in Jerusalem and at Hamashbir Hamerkazi cooperative stores there. The Acre Arabs were found in possession of pistols with silencers, tubes of tear gas, explosives and detonators.