Volunteers from neighboring settlements flocked to Merom Hagolan and Nahal Snir in the Golan Heights today to help repair the damage caused by yesterday’s Syrian shelling. Merom Hagolan, where the damage was heaviest, was also visited by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan yesterday while the shelling was still going on. Two buildings and a cowshed were hit and the settlement’s electric power grid was damaged.
The damage at Nahal Snir was slight. One shell exploded at Kibbutz Dan in Upper Galilee causing a fire which was put out before serious damage occurred. The border region was quiet today but tension was evidently still high on the Syrian side. Syrian soldiers did not leave their posts. The usual sheep flocks were not put out for grazing. Syrian crash units were seen trying to extricate tanks damaged by Israeli return fire.
Gen. David Elazar, Israel’s Army Chief of Staff, described yesterday’s retaliatory attacks as the most massive and intense in recent months. He said that if the Syrians seal their borders to terrorist incursions against Israel will observe the cease fire. But Israel will retaliate any time a civilian settlement is hit, he warned. Elazar spoke to journalists during a tour of Army positions and settlements in the battle area.
He said the Syrians suffered serious losses and damage, not the least of which was the damaged morale of the Syrian Army which was never very high. He said if there was any Syrian-Egyptian military cooperation, as reported from some quarters, it was not felt on the battlefield.
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.
