Terrorists Attack Bus Carrying Christian Tourists from Florida

A 16-year-old American girl was wounded by terrorist grenades hurled at a tourist bus in the Arab village of Al Azariyeh four miles east of Jerusalem shortly before noon today. The girl, identified as Jean Replogle, of Jacksonville, Fla., was rushed to Hadassah Hospital where she underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from her thigh. None of the other 16 tourists in the bus, all Christians from Jacksonville, was hurt but all were badly shaken. They were given hot drinks and sandwiches at police headquarters.

Israeli security forces reportedly detained 40 persons for questioning in a dragnet operation around Al Azariyeh after the incident, the second terrorist outrage in the Jerusalem area in two days. Twelve persons were injured Friday when a bomb exploded in Zion Square in the heart of downtown Jerusalem.

The tourist bus stopped at Al Azariyeh, called Bethany in the New Testament, during its return trip from Jericho to Jerusalem. The tourists visited a local church and were re-boarding the bus when the grenade attack occurred. Eyewitnesses differed in their accounts, some saying the grenades were thrown from a speeding car and others that they came from a rooftop. There were also reports of shots fired at the tourists but no other injuries were reported.

The tourists from Jacksonville arrived in Israel Friday, one of many groups from the U.S. and other countries who come to Israel to tour the holy sites during the Christmas season. Doctors at Hadassah Hospital described Miss Replogle’s condition as satisfactory this afternoon following surgery. Her parents, who are Baptists, told reporters that the group would continue their pilgrimage undaunted, but other members of the party seemed less certain. One told a radio interviewer, “I’ve had enough. I want to go home.”

POLICE PROBING ZION SQUARE EXPLOSION

Meanwhile, police are investigating unusual circumstances surrounding Friday’s explosion in downtown Jerusalem. According to police accounts, the explosive charge was concealed in a paint can that had been placed alongside a container of paint brushes and tools on a busy corner just off Zion Square.

Two police officers took the suspicious-looking can to their car and were apparently trying to pry it open when it exploded, setting fire to the car and injuring the policemen and ten passers-by. All were taken to Sharei Zedek Hospital where Police Sgt. Meir Levy and Reuven Shaharabani, a bystander, are still undergoing treatment for burns and cuts. Their condition was reported to be fair. Eight of the other injured were released from the hospital today and the ninth is expected to be discharged tomorrow.

Police are puzzled by several aspects of the incident which seem to point to laxity and carelessness on the part of security personnel. Among the questions that remained unanswered today was why the booby-trapped paint can was left unnoticed for at least an hour outside the Naava coffee shop on one of Jerusalem’s most crowded thoroughfares; why the officers who spotted the suspicious can failed to remove it to a security pit and summon police experts to examine it; why they took it to a parked police car and tried to open it before police sappers arrived on the scene.

Police are also investigating several Arab owned cars that were found daubed with PLO slogans this morning on the Street of the Prophets, one of Jerusalem’s main streets.

X-MAS BORDER TRUCE

Meanwhile, informed sources reported today that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a Christmas truce along the northern border. According to the sources, a cease-fire went into effect there two days ago. Israel will suspend its preventive artillery barrages aimed at terrorist bases inside Lebanon. The Lebanese authorities will see to it that the terrorists do not move out of the so-called Fatahland region of southern Lebanon for the duration of the truce. The sources said the agreement was arranged through the good offices of the UN.