Three young Israeli men and a woman were foiled yesterday in their attempt to rob weapons from a Sinai military camp and to kidnap two soldiers. According to accounts, the four arrived Sunday afternoon at the Santa Katherina youth hostel in the middle of the Sinai peninsula and caused tourists staying at the hotel to become suspicious when they discovered that some of their personal effects disappeared shortly after the arrival of the quarter.
Several tourists called the nearest police station in Ophira in Sharm el Sheikh and told the police what had happened. A police jeep with one policeman and three soldiers rushed to the Santa Katherina desert oasis, and the four were detained in a nearby army camp. Two reserve soldiers were guarding them during the night but before dawn the four managed to overcome their guards, took three submachine guns with them and the two guards as hostages, and the group disappeared in the jeep.
The army set road blocks and the group was discovered in the early afternoon in a wadi near the eastern shore of the Sinai peninsula. The general commander of the southern region, Shmuel Gorodish, arrived at the scene and convinced the kidnappers to surrender. They were held at an army camp in Beersheba for questioning. Police identified them as Haim Mielstein, 18. of Bat Yam; Michael-Tisdil, 18. of Tel Aviv; and David Dahan, 22, and Miriam Huber, 20, both of Rishon le Zion. Mielstein is known to have a criminal record. The others do not.
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