Arab terrorists hurled bombs and grenades at Israeli premises in Brussels. Bonn and The Hague today in what were apparently well-coordinated attacks. Four persons including the manager were injured when a bomb demolished the front of the El Al Israel Airline office in the Belgian capital at noon. One of the injured was reported in serious condition.
A guard in The Hague captured an Arab teenager with a grenade in his pocket after another grenade aimed at an open window in the Israeli Embassy building exploded in the doorway of the adjacent residence of the Embassy’s First Secretary, Shraga Tzur. Windows were smashed at the Israeli Embassy in the Bonn suburb of Bad Godesberg at 11:35 a.m. local time when two hand grenades were thrown from a neighboring garden onto the Embassy’s rear lawn. No one was hurt.
Dutch police guarded the El Al office in Amsterdam today and police reinforcements were sent to Schiphoal Airport where passengers boarding El Al and Royal Dutch Airline (KLM) flights for Tel Aviv were searched for weapons to avert a possible new aerial hijacking. The Netherlands’ Chief of Protocol phoned the Israeli Ambassador. Shimshon Arad, to convey Foreign Minister Josef Lun’s message of shock and outrage over the bombing of the Israeli Embassy. The youngster captured with a grenade reportedly admitted being a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
A spokesman for the Front said in Amman, Jordan today that the organization was responsible for the bombings in the three European capitals. He said the attacks were carried out by the “Ho Chi Minh” unit. The guerrillas were described as “lion cubs,” all teen-agers. The Front is the same organization that claimed credit for hijacking a TWA airliner to Damascus on Aug. 29. That act was carried out by two Arab commandos who styled themselves members of the “Che Guevara” unit. The identification of Arab terrorists with heroes of the radical left-wing indicated to observers here that the Arabs are trying to mobilize militant leftists, especially youth, against Israel.
(In Jerusalem, Minister of Transport Moshe Carmel said today’s attacks on the Continent and the recent bombing of the Zim Lines’ London office demonstrated that Arab terrorists were trying to cut Israel’s lines of communication with the rest of the world. He said those connections, by air and sea. will be maintained and warned that the saboteurs “may find themselves on the receiving end of full retribution.” Mr. Carmel said that nations interested in maintaining freedom of communications should do everything in their power to curb Arab terrorist activities. He said the attacks on Israeli targets abroad were a sign of weakness on the part of the Arabs.)
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