Terrorists in Nahariya Kill 4 Israelis, Including 2 Children; 2 Terrorists Captured, 2 Killed; Israe

Four Israelis including two small children were killed in a series of bloody shoot-outs with a sea-borne gang of terrorists who invaded their home on the Nahariya beachfront before dawn today. Several hours later, Israeli naval units shelled a terrorist base near Tripoli in Lebanon. At the same time, Knesset Speaker Yitzhak Shamir spoke out in support of the death penalty for terrorists. (See separation stories.)

Two of the four terrorists were killed and two were captured, one of them slightly wounded. The dead are Danny Aran, 28, his daughters Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, and police Sgt. Eliyahu Shachar of Maalot.

Four other Israelis were hospitalized for wounds. The latest outrage in the terrorist campaign to inflict civilian casualties caused Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eitan to cancel their scheduled departure for Cairo today. The visit has been postponed until after Israel’s Independence Day May 2. Premier Menachem Begin informed President Anwar Sadat of the changed plans via their “hot-line”. The Egyptian leader expressed condolences to the families of the victims.

(At the United Nations in New York, Secretary General Kurt Waldheim today expressed his “regrets” at the terrorist attack in Nahariya. A United Nations spokesman issued this statement: “The Secretary General deplores this cycle of violence and regrets the loss of innocent civilians in Nahariya.”

ELEMENTS IN THE TRAGEDY

According to security sources, the terrorists are members of the Palestinian Liberation Front, a Lebanon-based organization supported by Iraq. They set out from Tyre in a rubber dhingy with an outboard motor and managed to evade Israeli naval patrols despite increased vigilance in recent weeks. What transpired after they landed on the beach under cover of darkness was pieced together from the accounts of civilians and police.

The terrorists first attempted to break into a private house directly on the waterfront. Finding the gate locked they buzzed the owner, Amnon Sela, on the intercom. Sela became suspicious. He told his wife to call the police while he took his licensed Uzzi submachinegun and opened fire on four men in khaki outside his house.

At about the same time another civilian suspecting burglars, alerted police. A###patrol car driven by Sgt. Shachar rushed to the scene. He fired his service revolver at the terrorists but they cut him down with a shower of machinegun bullets through the windows of his car. Shachar, who was expecting his fourth child shortly, was killed instantly.The terrorists retreated into a nearby apartment house where they seized Aran who was taking his daughter Einat to the bomb shelter. A neighbor, Charlie Shapiro, a recent immigrant from South Africa, fired at the terrorists with his revolver, killing one of them. The others held Einat as a shield and fired, wounding Shapiro slightly. They took the child and her father out to the beach. The tragedy was compounded when Aran’s wife, fearing that the cries of Yael would attract the terrorists, tried to silence the baby and suffocated her.

The terrorists killed their two hostages on the beach where they were confronted by police. In the ensuing gun battle another terrorist was killed, and two were captured. Three other civilians were wounded and rushed to hospitals for surgery. They are reported improving. Shapiro was treated for his wounds and released before noon.

ANOTHER TRAGEDY AVERTED

In another terrorist-related incident, an explosive device planted near Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem last night was safely defused after it was spotted by a passer-by. Police cordoned off the area and arrested several suspects.

Meanwhile, two Palestinian terrorists who hurled hand grenades in the Brussels airport terminal on April 16 in an aborted attack on EI AI passengers were officially charged with attempted homocide by the Belgian outhorities. The two men, Khaled Dayek Dokh and Mahmud Hussein, will be tried by the Brabant criminal court and face life sentences. According to unconfirmed reports in the Belgian press, they were aided during their stay in the country by the wife of an unidentified Arab diplomat.

Last Thursday, Sgt. Yossi Bar-Meir, 22, was buried in Kibbutz Afrikim. He was killed April 16 during a clash with Palestinian terrorists near Zarit on the Lebanese border. Among the wreaths on his grave was one from Maj. Saad Haddad, the commander of the Christian militia in south Lebanon. Francis Rizik, a spokesman for Haddad, said Bar Meir shed his blood not only for his people but also for their brethren in south Lebanon.