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Eilat Ammunition Explosion Toll Up to 21; Findings Expected in Day or Two

January 28, 1970
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Ten more victims of the Eilat ammunition explosion last Saturday were buried today as the death toll crept up to 21. One of the men. seriously wounded in the blast, died during the night. Two other wounded succumbed in hospitals yesterday. Eighteen Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed outright. A military committee investigating the causes of the disaster will present its findings within a day or two. It is expected to confirm the general belief here that the explosion was an accident resulting from a live mine that was supposed to have been de-activated. Six tons of mines were being unloaded in the military harbor at Eilat when the blast occurred. The mines were brought there from Shadwan. an Egyptian island in the Gulf of Suez occupied by Israeli paratroops for 32 hours last week. Official sources declined to say whether the mines were Egyptian being removed from the island or whether they were Israeli mines that had been taken there and then returned.

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