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GV Ext. Police headquarters
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SV Sign 'Police' on side of building
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SV Int. Superintendent Turjeman giving press conference to journalists (2 shots)
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MV Police Chief speaking Pan to press and cameramen
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MV Reporters writing
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MV label being carried in, loaded with exhibits
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MV Police Chief shows exhibits to pressmen (7 shots)
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Initials OS/026 GL/OS/037



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Israel police yesterday (Sunday) announced they had smashed an international Arab guerrilla sabotage ring operating from France and infiltrated into Israel to blow up public buildings.

Police superintendent Avraham Turjeman, head of the Israeli Special Branch, told a press conference that the five people they had arrested had been recruited in France by the French branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Police said the group consisted of two sisters, Nadia and Marlene Bardali (26 & 21), born in Morocco, Evelyn Barj (26) from Germany, and an elderly French couple, Pierre and Edith Buchalter (69 & 60).

At the conference, pressmen were shown the brassieres, toothpaste tubes and sanitary towels in which the three girls were alleged to be carrying explosives and detonators when they were arrested at Lod Airport on 11 April. Also shown were batteries and transistors said to have been found inside a portable radio set when the Buchalters were arrested at a Tel Aviv hotel.

SYNOPSIS: Israeli police claimed on Sunday they had smashed an international Arab guerrilla sabotage ring operating from France. The head of the Special Branch described how three girls had been arrested at Lod Airport as they tried to mingle with tourists visiting Israel for Easter and the Passover. He said the girls, two Franco-Moroccan sisters and a German, were associated with members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He said an elderly French couple had also been arrested at a Tel Aviv hotel.

The police chief showed exhibits claimed to have been confiscated from the five suspects. He said the girls had flown to Israel on forged French passports, and carried high explosives concealed in brassieres, toothpaste tubes, and other articles of luggage, and had detonators hidden in sanitary towels. He said the French couple had transistors and batteries concealed in a portable radio. The Superintendent said the Moroccan girls had boyfriends int he Popular Front, while the German girl was an active member. The French couple had apparently acted for purely financial motives, and had been promised 1000 dollars each, he said.