The Cabinet met in special session as a ministerial security committee today to discuss the rising wave of terrorist activities. A brief announcement said only that Defense Minister Shimon Peres and Chief of Staff Gen. Mordechai Gur reported on security matters including terrorist acts. The deliberations of ministerial security committees are secret by law.
Meanwhile, security sources released details of yesterday’s incidents in which three terrorists were killed in clashes with Israeli units. two of them near the Lebanese border and the third in the Araba region of the Negev. The encounter in the north took place in the Har Dov region where an Israeli officer was killed in a terrorist ambush a week ago.
A patrol surprised three terrorist infiltrators and killed two of them. The third escaped in the wooded area. Two Kalachnikof automatic rifles were found near the slain terrorists who were also carrying a large quantity of ammunition, hand grenades, blankets, food and first aid kits. No explosives were found, indicating that the terrorists’ mission was not sabotage but to ambush Israeli patrols in the border region.
MEMBERS OF PFLP-GENERAL COMMAND
The dead terrorists, were identified as members of Ahmed Jabril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, the terrorist gang responsible for the Kiryat Shemona massacre. Security sources said they were wearing French-made berets with Jibril’s insignia–a blue circle on a red background with crossed rifles and an outline map of Palestine. The dead men were between 25-30 years of age.
The incident in the Negev, north of Ein Yahav near the Jordanian border. involved a single terrorist. His trail, picked up by an Israeli patrol. led to a hideout where the man, alone but heavily armed, chose to shoot it out. He was killed after a brief exchange of fire. The terrorist was wearing a uniform, rubber-soled shoes and carried a Jordanian identification card. Also found on him was a wrist-watch identified as the property of an Israeli Bedouin who was murdered in the region Monday. The murder prompted the search for the terrorist infiltrator.
Israeli artillery shelled targets in southern Lebanon yesterday in what was described as a preventive measure against terrorist concentrations. The fire was directed at the outskirts of Mazraat A Sharda and Killah villages. There were no Israeli casualties in any of the incidents.
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.
