Israeli Security Services have started an effort to locate 600 Arab summer visitors who stayed behind in Israel or in the administered territories after the expiration of their visit permits. There were some 137,000 Arab visitors during the summer and all but the 600 left in accordance with visiting conditions.
Police sources said that among the 600, there are some who are sick and in need of medical treatment, some are still making efforts through legal channels to receive permanent stay permits and some who simply decided to stay as long as they were not apprehended by the authorities. Security sources suspect that a small number of the Arabs may be connected with sabotage activities that assumed some momentum during recent weeks but which were checked after the arrest of some groups of terrorists in the Samaria district.
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