Gunmen in Cyprus Kill 3 Israelis

Three gunmen, demanding the release of 20 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, Wednesday seized an Israeli yacht on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, killed an Israeli woman and two men aboard and then surrendered after a lengthy standoff, police said.

In Israel, a man saying he represents Force 17, the elite bodyguard of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, phoned the Agence France-Presse news agency to claim responsibility for the attack. He said the three Israelis were spies monitoring movements of yachts ferrying Palestinians from Cypriot ports to Lebanon.

But the PLO office on Cyprus issued a statement saying the organization had no connection with the incident and denouncing it as harmful to Cypriot-PLO relations.

The gunmen, identified by police as Palestinians, boarded the private 17-foot boat berthed in Larnaca marina before dawn and killed Esther Palzur, 50, during an apparent struggle for control of the ship.

Body Left on Deck

The Palestinians dumped the woman’s body, dressed only in a nightgown, on the ship’s deck where it lay slumped over a guard rail for nearly 10 hours until the gunmen surrendered. Reporters said the woman had apparently been shot in the stomach.

“The nightgown was torn and that makes us believe that she must have put up quite a fight before she died,” police said.

Although no other shots were heard from the boat, police said the two Israeli men, Esther Palzur’s husband, Reuven, 53, and Avraham Anvery, 55, were found dead in the yacht’s small cabin. Each man lay blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back. Each was shot in the back of the head.

Israeli Reaction

In Jerusalem, the Israeli government issued a statement immediately after the end of Yom Kippur saying it was “deeply shocked at the despicable murder of three Israeli citizens. . . . The killers and their senders will not escape unpunished.”

Israel radio reported that Cyprus and Israel have no extradition agreement.

The gunmen demanded the release of a group of about 20 Palestinians intercepted off the Israeli coast last month while sailing toward the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon. The Israelis contend they were guerrillas on their way to conduct sabotage missions in Israel.

The Larnaca gunmen also demanded safe conduct for themselves to the town’s airport and a plane to fly them to an unspecified destination.

Lengthy Standoff

After a 10-hour standoff and negotiations with the Cypriot interior minister, the Egyptian ambassador and PLO officials, the gunmen suddenly surrendered to the police at mid-afternoon, coming out onto the yacht’s deck with their hands raised above their heads.

“They put down their weapons, a Kalashnikov, two Browning automatic pistols and six hand grenades,” a police spokesman said. The gunmen were led away from the dockside waving V-for-victory signs.

“We belong to no organization, we belong to the Palestinian people, we win, we win,” one of them shouted to a crowd of reporters.

English-Speaking Gunman

One gunman was blond and said he was a Palestinian. Told by a reporter he did not look Arab, he corrected himself to say he was fighting for the Palestinians. He spoke in English, but added a few words in Arabic.

The two other gunmen were Arab in appearance. Police did not give the names of any of the three.

The attack came on Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, considered the holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar. Wednesday also marked the 12th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.