Forty Members of Terrorist Cells Rounded Up in Supermarket Bombing Case

Jerusalem police said today that they had confessions from three suspects directly involved in planting bombs that wrecked the Supersol supermarket in West Jerusalem on Feb. 21, killing two Hebrew University students and injuring nine other persons. About 40 members of the gang responsible for the supermarket blast and subsequent bomb plantings at the British Consulate in East Jerusalem have been arrested. Today police said that all members of the gang were in custody.

Police said the bombs were planted by two girls who received the explosives from a third saboteur. They were concealed in shopping bags. The crime has been reconstructed with the aid of the suspects, according to police. Round-ups in East Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nablus uncovered stores of explosives and sabotage equipment amidst indications that it was to have been used shortly.

(Two shells exploded near the Timna copper mines in the Arava district of the Negev Sunday night. There were no casualties or damage reported.)

Minister of Police Eliahu Sasson was visited today by the Grand Mufti of East Jerusalem and by the heads of Christian churches who inquired about the arrested terrorists. Mr. Sasson explained the gravity of the charges against them.

Police said yesterday that all of the suspects were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the same terrorist group responsible for assaults on El Al airliners at Athens and Zurich. Police said that terrorist cells had been uncovered in East Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nablus along with large quantities of explosives and weapons.