3 Arrested in Jerusalem Grenade Attack

Israeli police Sunday announced the arrests of three Palestinians suspected of a grenade attack near the Western Wall in Jerusalem last week that killed one person and wounded 70.

The three young Arabs are thought to have been recruited through Jordan by Fatah, the main branch of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, police spokesman Rafi Levy said.

“Our investigation was very thorough,” Levy said. “We are confident that these are the ones who committed the act.”

A government statement later said that “in the course of our investigation, weapons and combat materials in the squad’s possession were handed over to the authorities.” No details on the weapons were given.

Names Not Released

The names of the suspects, said to be in their early 20s, were not immediately released.

The three Palestinians live in Silwan and Abu Tor, predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Levy said.

He said the suspects claimed membership in Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), a name used by Shia Muslim extremists who have seized American and French hostages in Lebanon and attacked Western targets in a campaign purportedly backed by Iran.

The Arab suspects were accused of hurling three Soviet-made hand grenades into a crowd of Israeli soldiers and their families last Wednesday night after the troops attended a traditional swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.

The father of an 18-year-old soldier was killed, and 70 people, including 42 soldiers, were wounded in the attack--the worst in Jerusalem in nearly three years.

The attack, near the Dung Gate of Jerusalem’s walled Old City, was followed Thursday by a raid by Israeli warplanes on suspected guerrilla targets in Miye ou Miye, a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese port of Sidon.

At least four people were killed and 20 wounded in the raid.

A U.S.-made Israeli warplane was lost in the air strike--reportedly shot down by a Palestinian guerrilla armed with a shoulder-fired SAM-7 missile. Its two crewmen bailed out of the plane and parachuted into an olive grove near the refugee camp.

An Israeli helicopter staged a dramatic rescue of the pilot 90 minutes later, but the navigator was reported captured by gunmen of Lebanon’s main Shia Muslim militia, Amal. Israeli forces searched for him for a fourth day Sunday but reported no progress.

Final Cabinet Meeting

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shimon Peres convened his Cabinet for the last time Sunday amid concern over the fate of the downed Israeli airman. Senior military officials briefed the Cabinet ministers on the air raid and the loss of the F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber.

Peres, leader of the Labor Alignment, is to exchange posts today with hard-line Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir under a power-sharing agreement reached after a stalemated general election in 1984.

Regarding the missing airman, Gen. Amos Lapidot, commander of the Israeli air force, told Army radio: “We know he is in the hands of one of the (guerrilla) organizations. We know he is alive, and we regard the group holding him as responsible for his safety.”

The general said the U.S.-made jet crashed not because of ground fire--as the guerrillas have contended--but because one of the bombs it was carrying blew up prematurely.