Tension mounted in settlements near the Lebanese border today as Israeli forces searched for the terrorist infiltrators responsible for the ambush murder of an Israeli couple on a road about three miles south of the border last night. The victims, Albert and Florence Malka of Zaryit, were returning from a Bar Mitzvah celebration in Nahariya when terrorists fired a bazooka shell at point blank range into the cab of their pick-up truck.
The murdered couple were the parents of three children. Malka was killed instantly. His wrist-watch was stopped at 10:20 p.m. local time indicating the time of the attack. Mrs. Malka was fatally wounded. The attack occurred near Shomera settlement.
The latest terrorist outrage in Upper Galilee is considered likely to result in more stringent Israeli security measures. Israel warned the Lebanese authorities several weeks ago that it would not hesitate to seize control of Lebanese territory adjacent to the border where an estimated 5,000 Palestinian terrorists are based. Israeli commandos raided Lebanese territory twice last month destroying houses used by the terrorists and killing an undisclosed number of the guerrillas. The area near the border is known as Fatahland because the guerrillas virtually control the region.
KATYUSHA ATTACK ON ACRE THWARTED
Police said the terrorists prepared their ambush so that they could fire directly into an oncoming vehicle. The Malka’s truck went off the road but did not overturn. It was spotted by passing motorists who called police. Several cars that approached the scene had their tires punctured by sharp nails the terrorists spread on the road, apparently to hinder rescue operations.
Police are trying to determine whether the terrorists who murdered the Malkas were the same responsible for an attempted katyusha rocket attack on Acre, a mixed Jewish-Arab town on Haifa Bay. Two rocket launchers were discovered by a member of Kibbutz Kabri this morning between Acre and the Lebanese border. They were armed and aimed toward Acre and set to be activated by a timing device. The kibbutz member and a colleague dismantled the weapons.
Three terrorists who confessed to the murder of six Arabs in the Gaza Strip were given life sentences yesterday by a military court in Gaza. All were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They are Muhammed Halil el Kadil, 35; Ahmed Hassan Abu Armana, 21 and Omar Ali Muhammed Abdu, 19.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
