Prime Minister Levi Eshkol told the Israel Cabinet today that reports of Jordanian casualties and damages in the Israeli raid last Sunday had been exaggerated and expressed the opinion that the severity of international criticism of the raid was due partly to such exaggerations.
The Premier stressed, in his report to the Cabinet, that no artillery had been used in the November 13 action and that Israeli planes had not fired at any ground targets. His comments were made in connection with the introduction of new measures to strengthen Israel’s defenses against Arab infiltrators. Two weeks ago, the Premier announced an increase in border police and field forces for that purpose which led to an extension of compulsory military service for Israelis from 24 to 30 months.
Prior to the Premier’s report, Israeli sources had asserted that there were a number of major inaccuracies in the formal United Nations Truce Supervision Organization report on the Israeli raid. The report, which was requested by the Security Council, now in session on a Jordanian charge of aggression against Israel, listed 16 Jordanian soldiers and three civilians killed and 134 persons wounded of whom 37 were alleged to be civilians.
Secretary-General U Thant reported to the Security Council Wednesday, on the basis of a preliminary report from Let. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of staff of UNTO, that 125 houses and other structures were destroyed in the Samoa area action. The formal UNTO report cited a statement by a Jordanian colonel in command of the Hebron area, where the Israeli raid took place, as telling UN investigators that Israeli forces included about 80 Fitton tanks and a number of armored personnel carriers, as well as 12 Mirage jet fighters
(At the United Nations, the Security Council met briefly Friday and then adjourned until 11 a.m. tomorrow. Dr. J. G. Debugs of the Netherlands, who spoke Friday, agreed with previous delegates that the guerrilla raids into Israel did not justify the retaliatory raid but urged action by the Council to prevent the “continuation and escalation of violence in the Middle East.” Some of the Council members were reported to be working on a draft resolution which would censure Israel, but, until now, the United States has not taken any part in the resolution drafting efforts.)
The Israeli critics of Gen. Bull’s formal report said that military correspondents who accompanied Israeli forces on the raid stressed that no Patton tanks were used and that the Mirage jets went into action only to fight off Jordanian jets seeking to interfere with the action. The Israeli sources also said that aerial photographs of the Samoa area, taken before and after the Israel action, showed “clearly” that no more than 30 structures were destroyed after they were evacuated by Israeli troops. The Israeli army permitted publication and display of blowups of the aerial photographs.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
