FROM OUR ARCHIVES

50 YEARS AGO

UN cease-fire observers began operations on both sides of the Suez Canal. By the late evening, the UN observers had no incidents to report.

An Air Force officer, Lt. Avraham Wieland, and the bodies of two other officers, Lt. Dan Segre and Lt. Meir Shahar, were exchanged yesterday for 591 Syrians, including 230 civilians, under arrangements made by the International Red Cross and the UN.

Two men, allegedly the Israeli sailors captured by the Egyptians four days earlier on the Suez Canal, were interrogated on Cairo television. The questions were designed to prove that Israel first put boats in the Suez Canal that Friday in an attempt to establish its rights to the canal by the time the UN observers arrived on the scene.

A number of Border Police officers told reporters they were confident they could ensure security for sightseers in the West Bank. The officers stressed that their men had not once been called upon to use arms in enforcing the curfew or in dealing with any other offenses. Many local residents, it was stated, had expressed satisfaction at the way Israeli police were carrying out their duty, in contrast with the arbitrary arrests and bribery prevalent under the Jordanian police.

15 YEARS AGO

At least three people were killed and more than 30 wounded in a double suicide bombing in the heart of Tel Aviv, just a day after the murderous attack on a bus near Emmanuel that killed eight. The terrorists blew themselves up in an area near the old central bus station that had become a center of nightlife mainly for foreign workers.

The Palestinian terrorists who attacked the Emmanuel bus ambushed the IDF units chasing them, killing platoon commander Lt. Elad Grenadier and wounding three soldiers.

The High Court of Justice rejected a petition by the Temple Mount Faithful asking to be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount during the Tisha Be’av fast. Jerusalem Police District Commander Miki Levy told the court there was substantial danger that such a service would trigger bloody riots.

10 YEARS AGO

The list of security prisoners set to be released in an effort to strengthen Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas was released for public review. The list was topped by Abdel Rahim Malouh, deputy head of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, the group behind the 2001 assassination of tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi. The list consisted mostly of Palestinians arrested for illegal weapons possession, stone-throwing and membership in terrorist organizations. Families of terror victims were outraged at the pending release of Palestinians they said had been involved in the murdering of their loved ones.

In an unprecedented decision, the High Court of Justice agreed to hear evidence from the rape and sexual harassment case against former president Moshe Katsav that supposedly led the state to reach a plea bargain with the defense and drop all charges regarding Katsav’s relationship with the “first Alef,” a key witness. The court heard from six petitioners, who asked that the court issue an interim injunction that would prevent the state from filing a watered-down indictment against Katsav along with the plea bargain. —Daniel Kra