The government declared today that Israel will not be deterred or diverted from its dual purpose of “defending its citizens and making a political effort to progress toward peace.” That statement was issued following a three-hour Cabinet meeting in the aftermath of last night’s terrorist assault on the Tel Aviv beachfront which left at least 15 dead, including seven terrorists, and at least 23 wounded. Most of the fatalities occurred before dawn today when Israeli troops stormed the small Savoy Hotel adjacent to the beach which the terrorists had seized hours before and taken hostages.
Apart from the seven terrorists, three Israeli soldiers are known to be dead. The other victims included Israeli civilians and foreign tourists staying at the hotel but official sources so far have not released their names or other identification.
What Premier Yitzhak Rabin denounced today as a “murderous atrocity” was viewed by the Cabinet as a deliberate terrorist attempt to sabotage the next round of peace negotiations which U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger will undertake when he returns to the Middle East tomorrow, The Cabinet, meeting in secret as a ministerial security committee, said the assault was timed “for a political purpose–to foil any chance of progress toward a political settlement through negotiation.”
(Credit for the attack was claimed in Beirut today by El Fatah, the largest terrorist group within the Palestine Liberation Organization.)
WILL FIGHT TERRORISTS WHEREVER THEY ARE
“The criminal act of these Fatah men in Tel Aviv underlines again the murderous aims and methods of the terror organizations and increases the vital need to continue the struggle against the terrorist organization wherever our hand can reach them,” the Cabinet statement said.
“The Israel Defense Forces and the security services will continue to act to achieve the destruction of terrorists who infiltrate into Israel in order to carry out acts of sabotage and carnage,” the statement added, Observers took those words to imply that vigorous Israeli retaliation against terrorist strongholds will occur very shortly,
Last night’s attack on Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city, was carried out by eight terrorists who landed on the darkened beach from two rubber dinghys at about 11:30 p.m. local time. They crept up the 50 yards of sand undetected and, on reaching the Esplanade, a waterfront promenade lined with shops, nightclubs, restaurants and hotels, opened fire indiscriminately with automatic weapons, hurled hand grenades and, according to some accounts, fired bazooka shells.
Most of the wounded are believed to have been hit during the initial foray as pedestrians scattered for cover and motorists, whose cars were hit by bullets, abandoned them to seek shelter.
Police who rushed to the scene at the first sound of gunfire engaged the terrorists. The latter raced, shooting, along Geula Street, a narrow thoroughfare that ends at the beach, Falling to break through the heavy glass doors of a local movie house, the Cinema One, they crossed the street and broke into the Savoy Hotel, one of a number of small, shabby hostelries just off the beach.
DEMAND RELEASE OF JAILED ARABS
They seized hostages among hotel employes and guests, The number of hostages was variously estimated at between 10-40, The terrorists continued firing from the top floor of the four-story building as hundreds of crack army troops surrounded the street and cordoned off the neighborhood, Ambulances raced to the scene from all parts of the city to carry off the wounded, Defense Minister Shimon Peres arrived at the scene shortly after midnight.
The terrorists reportedly demanded the release of 10 jailed Arabs and Greek Catholic Archbishop Hillarion Capucci, serving a 12-year prison term for smuggling arms to terrorists in Israel. They also reportedly set a ten-hour deadline for Israeli authorities to provide them with a plane to fly themselves, the released prisoners and hostages to an Arab country.
Israeli officials ignored the demands and shortly before dawn a commando unit was ordered to storm the Savoy Hotel, in the fierce battle that ensued, six terrorists and three soldiers were killed, Peres announced after the shooting subsided that all of the terrorists had been killed. Hours later, however, more shots were fired from the hotel. Israeli troops found two more terrorists hiding out, killed one and captured the other.
The initial figure of 15 dead, including the terrorists, was not final. More bodies are believed to be buried in the debris of the hotel, but booby-traps planted by the terrorists delayed the search for bodies. The hotel was described this morning as virtually in ruins, Its narrow lobby and corridors were piled with crumbled masonry, shattered glass, smashed furniture, scattered shoes and articles of clothing belonging to guests. A few of the fluorescent lights in the lobby still flickered, casting a deadly blueish light over the carnage.
WELL ARMED KILLERS
Last night’s attack was not the first terrorist act against Tel Aviv but was easily the moat audacious. Last Dec, 11, a lone terrorist lobbed hand grenades from the balcony of the Chen Cinema on Dizengoff Circle in the heart of Tel Aviv, killing two patrons and later himself when a gren-
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