Bombing Incidents Lead to Expulsion of Five Arabs

The recent rash of bomb and grenade incidents on the West Bank, in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel is believed to have prompted the expulsion of five Arabs held in administrative detention in connection with alleged subversive activities. The five were escorted by military authorities to a United Nations checkpoint on the Lebanese border Friday and expelled into Lebanon.

They were identified as Abdullah Soriani and Mahmoud Skariat of East Jerusalem; Sulieman Najob, of Ramallah; Hassan Hammed Sawalha, of Gaza; and Mahmoud Bani Hassan, of Arbount, a village in the Samaria district of the West Bank. The latter was serving a seven-year prison sentence for infiltration from Jordan and establishing a terrorist cell for sabotage on the West Bank.

Soriani, Skariat and Najob were detained for membership in the Palestine National Front, an underground group on the West Bank associated with the Jordanian Communist Party. Sawalha was also held on charges of subversive activities. Although the five men were in confinement during the recent bombing episodes, their ouster was viewed as a warning to others. The various incidents caused some damage but no casualties.

INCIDENT IN JAFFA

Police in Jaffa, meanwhile, are holding 36 Arabs out of 260 detained for questioning Friday in connection with the explosion of a hand grenade concealed in a bush outside of a residential building. The grenade, believed to be of the British Mils type with a delayed action device, caused minor damage to the building but no injuries. A grenade discovered earlier in a public lavatory in Jaffa was de-fused by police before it could explode.

The two episodes put local civil guards on the alert. Thousands of basketball fans were searched Friday night as they left a Jaffa stadium where the Tel Aviv Maccabi team had just defeated a French championship team by a score of 88-78.