An El Fatah leader claimed credit for last week’s fatal bomb explosions in the Tel Aviv bus terminal and warned yesterday that they were “the start of more and bigger operations within our occupied homeland.” The boast was made by Abu Iyad, El Fatah’s No. 2 man, in a statement published in the guerrilla newspaper Fatah in Amman, Jordan. The bomb blasts at midday last Friday killed a 26-year-old Israeli student and injured 34 other persons. More than 1200 Arabs were rounded up for questioning and nine are being held as prime suspects. Abu Iyad claimed that “the Tel Aviv operation” and future stepped-up raids were possible because the truce between the commandos and King Hussein “provides us with a better atmosphere in Jordan and we can operate more freely.” Meanwhile, Jordanian troops are reportedly patrolling the borders to prevent hit-and-run assaults and shellings of Israeli settlements which could bring Israeli reprisal attacks and which would violate the cease-fire that Jordan has accepted. As a result, the guerrillas appear to be resorting to infiltration tactics and terrorist attacks in Israeli population centers.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
