Twenty Israeli soldiers were wounded, one of them fatally, in yesterday’s Egyptian attacks along the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Suez, it was reported today. The dead soldier was identified as Lance Corp. Shmuel Sussto, 20. Four other soldiers are in a serious condition, a military spokesman said. Egypt claimed that its commandoes made another crossing today of the Suez Canal to attack Israeli artillery positions. A Cairo spokesman said there had been heavy Israeli casualties. An Israeli spokesman said there was “no truth whatsoever” in the Egyptian claims.
Jordanians fired mortars at an Israeli patrol near El Hamma today but caused no casualties. The Musa Alami agricultural school on the Israeli side of the Jordan River was hit during yesterday’s shelling by Jordanian artillery near the Abdallah bridge but no casualties were reported. A number of mortar shells were fired from Lebanese soil last night at Israeli positions on Mt. Hermon without causing casualties. The fire was returned. An explosive charge damaged a water pumping station near Erez settlement north of the Gaza Strip last night. The installation is property of the Mekoroth Water Co.
According to a military spokesman, most of yesterday’s Israeli casualties occurred when Egyptian shore batteries fired on a group of unarmed Israeli soldiers swimming in the Gulf of Suez. The batteries, at the Tel El Adabiyeh naval station, were later blasted by Israeli jets. The shelling began when the soldiers went to the aid of a comrade who was drowning.
A Times of London correspondent reported from Cairo that Egyptians are resigned to the fact that they will have to fight Israel again if they are to recapture the Sinai peninsula, Sharm el-Shiekh and re-open the Suez Canal. He said there was a new mood of determination in Egypt after two years of “fruitless diplomatic efforts to win a political solution coupled with a growing clamor from Israeli annexationists.” He said recent action along the Suez Canal has shown the Egyptians that they are capable of fighting.
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