Israel Holds 10 as Spies for Iraq

JERUSALEM —  Israeli police officers said Tuesday that they have arrested 10 Israeli Arabs suspected of spying for Iraq in the Gulf War.

The 10, arrested during the last two weeks, allegedly photographed strategic security installations and had instructions to send Israeli military documents to a Palestine Liberation Organization handler abroad on behalf of Iraq.

Police last week arrested Sari Nusseibeh, a leading Palestinian nationalist, for allegedly passing information harmful to state security to Iraqi intelligence by way of the PLO.

Fellow Palestinian activists described the spy allegations as a pretext, saying his arrest was really aimed at quelling the 3-year-old uprising in the occupied territories.

Nusseibeh earlier was detained without charge for three months under emergency regulations. The U.S. and British governments protested and said he should be put on trial if there was evidence against him.

The 10 Israeli Arabs will be arraigned and charged in an Israeli court within days, a police communique said. The charges include belonging to a hostile organization, contact with a foreign agent and espionage.

“The members of the organization are suspected of being recruited by an Arab Fatah activist, formerly a citizen of Israel, who lived in Iraq and Egypt and is linked with Iraqi intelligence,” the communique said.

“They were recruited to collect intelligence on Israel.”