Three Terrorist Attempts Foiled

Four terrorist infiltrators from Jordan were captured, three East Jerusalem Arabs were detained on sabotage charges, and the bombing of a roadside restaurant near Netanya was narrowly averted in three apparently unrelated acts of terror today. The four men captured by a border patrol near Tayassir village in the hilly region around Jenin in northern Samaria had been the object of a 24-hour manhunt.

Security sources said the terrorists crossed the Jordan River Sunday morning and managed to elude discovery despite an extensive search and curfews imposed on three Arab villages. Yesterday morning a patrol spotted four suspects on a hill away from traveled areas. Although they produced seemingly bona fide credentials identifying them as West Bank residents, the fact that they were dressed in “mod” clothing–bell-bottom trousers and loud-colored shirts–aroused suspicion.

After a brief interrogation, the suspects directed police to a hillside cache which yielded four Kalachnikof assault rifles, pistols, explosive charges, terrorist uniforms and snapshots of the suspects at an El Fatah training camp in Syria.

The four men were linked by police to three others captured by security forces Sunday after entering Israeli territory from Jordan. The gang is believed to have been on a sabotage mission with the intention of establishing terrorist cells in the administered territories.

ALERT SOUNDED IN NETANYA AREA

The bombing attempt near Netanya was foiled when an employe of a steakhouse on the Netanya-Haifa highway junction discovered an improvised bomb made of a Mills hand grenade and activating device. The steakhouse is located near a taxi stand used by Arab workers from the administered territories traveling to and from jobs in Israel.

The incident sparked a new alert in the Netanya area where police are still investigating Sunday’s attempt by two Arab youths to plant a lethal device on the crowded Netanya beach. It was learned today that the youths led police to an arms and explosives cache near Tulkarem on the West Bank and have confessed their intention to commit acts of sabotage.

The three East Jerusalem Arabs were arrested apparently in connection with the discovery Sunday of a time bomb under a fruit and vegetable stand in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market. A bombing attempt near the same spot was foiled a week ago.

The Jerusalem magistrate’s court ordered the three East Jerusalem men to be remanded for 15 days on suspicion of participating in several terrorist acts. The three, aged 17, 20 and 21, are suspected of arson in incidents involving a religious book store close to the Western Wall in the Old City, a car belonging to a Jewish quarter resident, a synagogue in the Street of the Jews in the Old City, and a tractor on Mount Zion. They are also suspected of an attempt to commit a terrorist act in an artists’ market near the Old City and smearing walls with hostile slogans.