Three Israeli field workers were killed and two were injured today when the tractor trailer they were riding in struck a mine near Kibbutz Ashdod Yaacov in the Beisan Valley. The incident, which occurred shortly past noon, coincided with a Jordanian artillery attack on Israeli forces along the West Bank near Damiya Bridge. The attack touched off an artillery and small arms duel that erupted intermittently throughout the afternoon and as last reports was still going on.
According to a military spokesman, the Jordanian attack began around noontime and the ensuing exchange of fire lasted until 1:30 p.m. At 1:45 p.m., the Jordanians opened fire with high trajectory weapons (mortars) and at 2:00 p.m. opened fire again with artillery.
Four Arab marauders were killed and two were wounded in a clash with an Israeli patrol north of the Dead Sea last night as other raiders fired bazooka shells into the Romema quarter in northwest Jerusalem, a military spokesman announced today. He said that a curfew has been imposed on several villages in former Jordanian-held territory north of Jerusalem as security forces hunt the terrorists. No Israeli casualties were reported.
Explosives were detonated under a residential house in northern Jerusalem shortly before dawn today. The building is one that El Fatah terrorists attempted to blow up a year ago.
The bazooka attack was launched from a speeding car shortly before midnight. Two shells were fired, one of which slightly damaged a building near Allenby Square. No casualties were reported but the explosions shattered glass in neighboring buildings. Police rushed to the scene where an investigation is still underway.
(The Syrian-based El Fatah terrorist organization claimed that it has set up secret bases and arms caches in Israel-occupied territory and inside Israel itself from which it intends to wage an intensified campaign of sabotage and terrorism. The El Fatah announcement appeared in the Lebanese Post of Beirut.)
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.
