3 Anti-vehicle Mines Found Near Suez, Israelis and Arabs Exchange Fire in Beisan

Three anti-vehicle plastic mines were discovered this morning on the East Bank of the Suez Canal near Port Tewfik at the waterway’s southern entrance. The Israeli Army patrol that found the explosives dismantled them and also reported finding footprints that led to the banks of the canal, a military spokesman reported today. Mortar and machinegun fire was directed at Kfar Ruppin, Yardena and Beth Joseph in the Beisan Valley last night. Israelis returned the fire from emplacements near regular Jordanian Army positions, a military spokesman said. About 100 shells exploded within the perimeter of Kfar Ruppin but no casualties were reported. An Israeli civilian was slightly injured last night when the Tahal Water Co. pick-up truck in which he was riding hit a mine in the Negev Desert south of Ein Yahav. A curfew was imposed on a section of Gaza this morning while Israeli authorities investigated the throwing of a grenade at a moving Army vehicle last night. Several suspects were arrested for questioning.

A former member of the Jordanian Parliament and a local physician, both from Jenin, were reported to have admitted to charges which led to their arrest for espionage yesterday. Accused of contacts with El Fatah and other terrorist gangs are Najib el Bachar and Dr. Khalil Toukan. They were arrested on what authorities described as ample evidence of their active participation in espionage. The two men were said to have denied the charges originally but confessed when confronted with documentary evidence.

An exchange of civilians took place between Egypt and Israel yesterday at Kantara on the Suez Canal. Returned to Egypt were 199 Egyptian civilians who had remained in El Arish in northern Sinai after the June, 1967 Six-Day War. The Egyptians sent back 192 residents of Sinai and the Gaza Strip who were in Egypt when the war broke out.