Police are investigating whether poisoned coffee grinds that made seven people sick on a northern kibbutz was the result of intifada terrorism or a random criminal act.
While taking a mid-morning break Monday at the lamp factory at Kibbutz Ga’ash, north of Tel Aviv, four members of the kibbutz and three European volunteers immediately fell sick after drinking a mixture of the grinds used for making Turkish coffee.
They were rushed by ambulance to nearby Meir hospital in Kfar Saba, where remains of the coffee grinds and other substances which might have caused the poisoning were analyzed.
The seven were reported to have recovered from injury.
Police questioned a number of Arabs employed in the kibbutz to try and establish whether the incident was an act of terrorism or had some other criminal purpose.
Daniel Kait, secretary of the Mapam-affiliated kibbutz, said that it was inconceivable that Arabs employed by the kibbutz for many years and with whom they were all on good terms should have sought to harm kibbutz members and their foreign volunteer guests.
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