The World: Drama and Death in the Strip

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The search for the young grenadiers was more thorough and more brutal than any previous Israeli sweep. Green-bereted border police, rough Druze rather than Hebrew, came to help; incidents mounted until one officer and what the army described as "a number of soldiers" were charged with unnecessary brutality toward Arab civilians in the course of their searches. Informers eventually turned up Mahmoud Slieman Zak, who had been paid $28 to toss the grenade. Israel rarely invokes the death penalty, so the boy was sentenced to seven life terms plus 50 years. Mahmoud showed little emotion until the judge said that there was not enough evidence to prove that the boy belonged to a clandestine guerrilla organization. "You did that deliberately to make me look like a common criminal!" Mahmoud screamed.

After the tragedy Aroyo was a crushed man, hut he strained to be compassionate. "I do not hate the people who did this," he said. Few Israelis felt that way about it.

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