During the same month, three brothers, all from the Malabeh family, had been arrested; they pleaded guilty to carrying out a series of terror attacks, including the murder of a taxi driver and booby-trapping his vehicle. The three also admitted their membership in the Fatah organization, and that they had received a large cache of weapons via safe transfer point in a school belonging to the Greek Catholic church in Beit Hanina; weapons which they had divided and secreted in three additional safe transfer points. The locations of these transfer points were revealed to investigators.

The account which follows summarizes the exposure of a sophisticated and multi-leveled system for smuggling weapons, and the way in which the weapons used in the terror attacks above were brought into Israel.

Even prior to the establishment of concrete evidence about the sources of the weapons, the ISA had become increasingly convinced that the weapons  were being smuggled into the country through official border crossings, by individuals authorized to cross without being searched, such as UN representatives, diplomats or Christian religious leaders. This assessment was of course insufficient on its own, and the ISA  used its intelligence means to trace the path of the weapon smuggling and its source.

It was an ISA long-time source, active against Fatah headquarters, who brought the required result in the end. The breakthrough occurred in late July 1974, when the source returned from one of his missions and reported that he had been appointed the central individual responsible for the "dead drops" in the West Bank, by his Fatah handler "Abu Firas," in a joint decision with the military commander of the organization "Abu Jihad."

He was also told, after being sworn to secrecy, that the individual responsible for the transfer of the weapons to the West Bank, and who would provide him the weapons for distribution, was none other than the archbishop Hilarion Capuchi. The source was told to contact with Capuchi, to receive the weapons which will be smuggled in his car, and to hide them on behalf of terrorist cells in the West Bank.

Capuchi, an Arab from Aleppo in Syria, and resident in East Jerusalem, was the senior Arab Catholic figure in East Jerusalem. The fact that he was a religious leader did not deter him, it turned out, from having intimate relationships with women, nor from gambling or card games. Nor did he draw the line at smuggling – exploiting his special status.

In response to the new information, the ISA began surveillance of Capuchi's movements and actions. On August 8, 1974, the surveillance revealed that Capuchi and his aide were heading in the direction of Jerusalem in Capuchi's car, which was loaded with explosives  Due to the serious fear of the possibility of an explosion, either intentional or as the result of an accident leading to tragedy, the decision was made to stop the vehicle immediately.

Indeed, this was done, and the car and its passengers were transferred to the police station in the Russian Compound, where the car was dismantled. The search revealed a large cache of material in various hiding places, including four Kalachnikov rifles, two pistols, a number of packages of plastic explosives, electronic detonators, grenades and more.

During his interrogation, Capuchi initially denied his involvement in the smuggling, and claimed that the weapons were secreted in his car without his knowledge. However, an envelope found in his possession, with "Abu Firas"'s phone number in Lebanon scribbled on it, revealed his part in the activity. He admitted that in April 1974 he had received a suitcase and a bag from him, which he brought to the West Bank in his car and subsequently concealed, as instructed, in the Greek Catholic church school in Beit Hanina. He also revealed that in July he had been asked again  to transfer weapons. This time, the weapons were hidden in various places in his car, and were found at the time of his arrest, as described above.

Capuchi's arrest and the seizure of the weapons did not yet mark the end of the operation. Following his confession and his agreement to cooperate with the ISA, he was released home.

The next day, under the instruction and the supervision of the ISA, the link between the source and Capuchi was established, and at their meeting, the latter transferred the weapons to him in two suitcases – which now held dummy ammunition. Seemingly, all was proceeding correctly, and daily meetings were held with the new source, "Capuchi".  However, particular evidence pointed to the fact that he was planning to escape during a bishops' conference in Beirut. It was then decided to arrest him.

This was the conclusion of the operation. Capuchi was tried and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, but was released in November 1977, following a request from the Pope. Despite promises from both the Vatican and Capuchi himself, the archbishop became an active spokesman on behalf of the Palestinian cause throughout the world.

Regardless of this, the great importance of this operation was the exposure and closure of a central Fatah trafficking route, and as a result, significant frustration of Fatah's ability to carry out terror attacks.

The vehicle is brought for examination at the police garage


The weapons cache found in the vehicle