The New York Times · New York, New York · 24 May 1974

CP-1974-023

Israelis Kill 6, Capture 2; New Massacre Plot Seen

By CHARLES MOHR

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Transcribed from the clipping

TEL AVIV, May 23 — Six Palestinian guerrilla infiltrators were killed and two were captured today by Israeli troops. An Israeli spokesman said that the two captured guerrillas had said that the group planned to carry out a “massacre” similar to the killing of students at Maalot last week.

Just a few miles west of Maalot machine gun fire and grenade explosions were heard for 30 minutes this afternoon as troops combed heavy scrub in a search for other guerrillas after one other infiltrator was killed last night near the Lebanese border.

Security alerts and other searches were on in other scattered areas of northern Israel in the struggle between Palestinian terrorists and Israel.

The six Palestinians killed and two captured were reportedly an eight-man team that infiltrated across the Syrian-Israeli lines into the Golan Heights with the apparent intention of taking hostages in one or two kibbutzim, or collective farms, in Israel proper and demanding the release of guerrilla prisoners held by Israel.

This was the pattern that led to last week’s tragedy at Maalot, far to the west. Surrender Reported An Israeli military spokesman said that the group intercepted today of the Golan Heights was found when an army patrol “encountered two terrorists who surrendered to the patrol.”

“Following their interrogation, a pursuit was mounted after the rest of the gang,” the Israeli announcement continued. “Towards noon, the gang was spotted and, in the exchanges of fire that ensued, the remaining six terrorists were killed.” Israel said she had suffered no casualties.

The Palestinian killed last night was found near high cliffs and dense shrubby canyons close to Adamit near the Lebanese border. He must have been on a separate mission, and a major security alert was under way in northwest Israel in case he had had companions.

The two men captured in the Golan Heights said during questioning by Israeli intelligence officers and journalists that they belonged to the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, led by Nayef Fawatmeh, which says it carried out the attack at Maalot a week ago yesterday.

The official Israeli announcement gave the names of the captured men as Cassar Cashian and Muhammad Kanju Sharkaz Hilal, but they told a reporter for United Press International that their names were Abdullah el-Mehdi and Abu Turki.

Equipment Carried The six dead and two captured men, Israeli spokesmen said, were carrying eight Russian-designed automatic rifles, 30 hand grenades, four revolvers, about 22 pounds of explosive bricks ready for detonation, two loudspeakers, a map with marked routes, two small transistor radios, compasses and binoculars.

The Israeli spokesman said the captured men admitted that they had been sent to carry out a terrorist act similar to the massacre at Maalot and added, “They were found to be in possession of a demand for the release of 30 terrorists imprisoned in Israel, as well as letters in English addressed to the Ambassadors of Rumania and Japan.”

Questioned by reporters, the captured men said they had been ordered to “take civilian hostages” in the kibbutzim of Din Gev and Haon near the Sea of Galilee in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails and the return of the bodies of three guerrillas shot dead at Maalot.

“We were told that we could permit an extension of our deadline for one hour but that if the demands had not been met there would be a massacre,” a journalist quoted Mr. Mehdi as saying.

How this transcription was made

Read from the scan by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by optical character recognition and not by a person.

Context added by this archive

The date on this record is a correction. It arrived labelled 4 May 1974. The clipping itself is datelined TEL AVIV, May 23, and dates the Maalot attack to a week ago yesterday, which places that attack on 15 May 1974, when it happened. A story filed on 23 May prints on 24 May, and it cannot have been printed on 4 May. The date here is 24 May 1974, read off the page.

No masthead or folio survives on the clipping to confirm it.

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