Israeli Jets Hit Egyptian Canal Positions Again; Ground Fighting Continues

Israel Air Force jets attacked Egyptian positions along the Suez Canal twice today. They also hit guerrilla bases in Jordan, southeast of the Dead Sea, a staging area for recent saboteur attacks on the potash works at Sdom. A military spokesman reported that all aircraft returned safely to their bases.

An Israeli soldier was wounded by Egyptian mortar fire near the southern end of the Suez Canal yesterday, three Arab saboteurs were killed in an encounter with Israeli patrols near the Lebanese border, and a fourth was killed as he tried to make his way back into Lebanon. One Israeli border policeman of the Druze community was fatally wounded in the clash and a second Druze policeman was injured.

Israeli forces blew up five houses in the Nablus district belonging to confessed saboteurs who were captured in a recent round-up of guerrillas in the area.

(In Beirut, the Palestine Liberation Organization blamed “Israeli intelligence” agents for a rocket attack that blasted its headquarters there today. Seven persons were hospitalized and several others were cut by splinters and flying glass. Six rockets were fired at the PLO office from across the street. A senior official of the organization, Saafik el Hout, claimed the attack was planned by a man purporting to be a Dutch journalist who visited the headquarters last week. The PLO represents itself as an umbrella organization for various Arab commando groups fighting Israel.)

(Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad told the Cairo newspaper Al Akhar today that Egypt was “not ready to go any place” for peace negotiations with Israel which he said were impossible “under any circumstances.” He asserted that his Government believed that recent international discussion of the so-called “Rhodes formula” was a product of “Zionist propaganda.” Mr. Riad alleged that the Rhodes discussion was instigated by Israel to avoid withdrawing its troops from occupied areas.)