Israeli Diplomat Slain, Wife Wounded in Cairo

Gunmen assassinated an Israeli Embassy diplomat Tuesday and wounded his wife and another woman in a hail of submachine-gun fire as the victims were driving to work at the embassy.

Albert Atrakshe, 30, who took up his post as an administrative attache in Cairo three months ago, was the first Israeli diplomat killed in Egypt since the two countries established diplomatic relations after signing a peace treaty in 1979.

A hitherto unknown group calling itself “Egypt’s Revolution” claimed responsibility for the killing in a typewritten statement delivered to a news agency here.

The statement denounced the U.S.-sponsored peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and said the group had asked President Hosni Mubarak in an earlier statement to cancel the peace accords.

“Regrettably, President Mubarak did not listen to the wishes of the people and submitted to the Israeli enemy and his American masters, and we found the Israeli flag desecrating our land. . . ., “ it said.

Reaction Muted

In Jerusalem, Times correspondent Dan Fisher reported that senior Israeli officials said they do not expect the assassination to further damage the strained relations between the two countries. He reported that reaction was generally cautious among Israeli officials; it underlined the sensitivity of Israeli-Egyptian ties that were damaged by Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and by a longstanding Sinai Peninsula border dispute.

However, right-wing political figures in Israel criticized Egypt for what they called the creation of an atmosphere of violence against Israel through hostile propaganda.

Atrakshe was shot to death and his wife, Ilena, 24, and Mazal Menashe, 22, his secretary who is also the wife of another embassy diplomat, were wounded in the attack by three gunmen.

The two women were reported in stable condition after surgery at Cairo’s As Salam Hospital.

An Egyptian policeman said the gunmen followed the attache in a car and sprayed his vehicle with submachine-gun fire a few yards away from his home, in the fashionable suburb of Maadi.

He quoted a witness as saying that one gunman got out of the car and shot Atrakshe through the window. Police said they found 17 bullets lodged in the car and spent rounds scattered on the street.

The “Egypt’s Revolution” statement said the group was also behind the shooting of another Israeli envoy, Zvi Kadar, who has since left Egypt. He was wounded in the hand in an attack in Cairo 18 months ago. No one claimed responsibility at the time.

Cairo Deplores Attack

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Cairo “strongly deplores the incident in which an Israeli diplomat was killed. The Egyptian authorities will take all necessary measures to detain the assassins and put them on trial.”

In Israel, the cautious reaction was reflected by a remark by a senior Israeli government official who has been involved in efforts to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Mubarak: “There are nuts on the margin of every society, and occasionally they have their day. I don’t think it will affect the overall relationship.”

According to a statement issued by Peres’ office, the prime minister expressed “deep shock” at the incident and said he expects the Egyptian government to do everything necessary to bring the assassins quickly to justice.

Israel’s ambassador to Cairo, Moshe Sasson, who is in Jerusalem for consultations, said the killing of his attache is “anti-Egyptian as much as it is anti-Israeli.”

But some officials of the rightist Likud bloc, which shares power with Peres’ Labor alignment in Israel’s fragile national unity coalition government, took a different tack. Deputy Foreign Minister Roni Milo said that while he is convinced that the Egyptian authorities will do all they can to capture the killers, he hopes they will also deal with “hostile propaganda” directed against Israel.