Egypt issues stern warning against Israeli reprisal raid

Press, 15 March 1978, Page 8

Egypt issues stern warning against Israeli reprisal raid

International

NZPA-Reuter

Cairo

Egypt has warned Israel of serious consequences if any part of the Arab world is attacked in retaliation for last Saturday’s Palestinian guerrilla bus attack, the influential newspaper, “Al-Gomhouria,” has said.

It said the warning was conveyed to the United States Ambassador (Mr Hermann Eilts) in a meeting with the Egyptian Foreign Minister (Mr Mohammed Ibrahim Kamel). The semi-official daily, "Al-Ahram,” said Mr Kamel told the American Ambassador that any Israeli military i retaliation would only plunge the area into a vicious circle of violence.

Israeli leaders have hinted their country may retaliate against the Palestine Liberation Organisation for the bus attack in which 36 Israelis were killed three days ago.

The paper said: “An Israeli military action in retaliation would escalate violence and further deteriorate the Middle East situation.”

Analysts in Cairo noted, however, that the Egyptian warning fell short of threatening a breakdown in the peace negotiations with Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) earlier voted that Israel would hit back at the P.L.0.. which has claimed responsibility for the raid, the biggest guerrilla attack on the Jewish State in its history. “Israel will cut off the evil arm of the Palestine Liberation Organisation,” Mr Begin told the Knesset (Parliament). “Those who spill innocent blood will not enjoy' immunity. We shall defend out citizens our women and our children . . . We shall not allow under any conditions an evil hand to be lifted against the head of a Jewish child or woman,” he said. The Palestinian guerrilla leader, Yasser Arafat, said yesterday that Israel had de- ! ployed three brigades of t tanks, paratroopers, and mechanised units for a massive reprisal against guerrilla strongholds in south Lebanon.

Mr Arafat, whose Fatah organisation staged the raid, said in a speech published by Beirut newspapers, “A largescale military operation is being readied by the enemy o crush us. But we shall not; shy away from doing battle.] We shall not be frightened.” Syrians, who form the bulk of a 30,000-man Arab League army that polices the civil war armistice in Lebanon, have reinforced their air, ground and harbour defences lin Beirut, Tripoli, and Sidon — Lebanon’s three biggest cities with teeming Palestinian refugee camps. The peace-keepers are not in the biblical port city of Tyre, 80km south of Beirut, I that serves as the. main arms supply harbour for guerrillas.

Eight of the 32 victims were buried on Monday. At the United Nations, the Israeli Ambassador (Mr Pinhas Eliav) said the guerrillas received their orders from Halil Wazir, known as Abu Jihad. In a letter ■ to the United Nations, Secretary-General (Dr Kurt Waldheim) the ambassador charged that Abu Jihad had been involved in the planning and execution of many atrocities. These included the murder of 11 Israelis at the Munich Olympics in September, 1972, and the attack on the i Israeli Embassy in Bangkok three months later, he said. Pathologists who on Monday sorted out the last remaining charred bodies of those who died when the guerrillas blew up the bus, identified the bodies of nine of the commandos, including one woman.

Eleven guerrillas landed near Maagan Michael after floundering in three rubber boats for two days in stormy seas, the Israeli police said. They said tw? other guerrillas in the original raiding party drowned. Inspector-Genera! Chaim Tabori of the Israeli police

told a press conference: “The guerrillas left a small Lebanese coastal village aboard a Greek vessel and took to the sea last Tuesday in three small boats inside Israeli territorial waters,” he said.

“But they drifted in stormy weather, lost their way and only found the Israeli coastline on Saturday near Maagan Michael. “As they came ashore they met a young American woman and asked her where they were. When she told them, they were in Israel, they killed her and set off on their rampage.” The Israeli Agriculture Minister (Mr Ariel Sharon), a former army general, bluntly accused the military and the police of botching the fight. Mr Begin has promised two inquiries — one military and one civilian — aimed at disi covering how the attackers could have roared down Israel’s principal highway for 45 minutes without being stopped. I When Mr Begin aninounced on Monday that he was going to Washington with his Foreign Minister (Mr Moshe Dayan) next Sunday — a week later than originally planned — the Prime Minister did not say that the Defence Minister (Mr Ezer Weizman) would be returning with the party. Israelis, shocked at the raid’s implications, have also been alarmed by unconfirmed newspaper reports that their Navy had heard of a possible attack before the assault. The attackers virtually cut Israel in half at its most vulnerable point — the major coastal road artery linking north and south.

The raid also demonstrated a lack of communications between the police and the military, who should have co-operated smoothly in the attack.