Three more anti-Israel attacks–along the borders of Egypt, Jordan and Syria–flared on the Israeli frontiers over the week-end, marking the resumption of Arab-made incidents which have broken a short period of relative quiet.
On the Jordanian border, southwest of Jerusalem, infiltrators fired on Jewish farmers while they were working in the fields. The Israelis returned the fire, a military spokesman here said. There were no casualties among the Israelis.
Syrians opened fire on the settlement of Shamir in the north. Here, the military spokesman declared, a number of buildings were hit but, again, there were no Israeli casualties.
The third incident occurred near the troublesome Gaza strip along the Egyptian border. In this latest flare-up, the military spokesman reported, an Israeli civilian jeep was the target of Egyptian automatic fire across the Egyptian lines near Tel Reim. The car was hit in four places, but none of the jeep’s occupants was hurt.
Meanwhile, Israeli Army investigators probing last week’s most serious Egyptian attack–the explosion of a main water pipeline in the Negev desert–reported that there was unmistakable proof that an Egyptian commando unit was responsible for that attack inside the Israeli lines.
According to the investigators, tracks of footgear worn by the infiltrators led back to the Egyptian lines near the spot where the Egyptians maintain a training post for Palestine Arabs being schooled in commando tactics. The selection of the spot for the explosion was carried out skillfully, the investigators said.
The commandos, obviously accompanied by regular Egyptian troops, came along a dry river bed that leads into Israel territory some 400 meters from the border. They chose a spot where there was a huge distributing tap for the main pipeline, dug a hole under the concrete housing of the tap, and employed a TNT explosive of about 50 kilograms. The explosion damaged pipelines carrying about 15,000 cubic meters of water which is fed into irrigation ditches in the area and used for watering livestock. The commandos then retreated into Egyptian territory back along the same dry river bed they had used for the raid entry.
Today, an auxiliary water pipeline is being used, while repairs are being made to the main tubing and the tap. Israeli authorities have reported this outrage, and the others, to the various United Nations mixed armistice commissions charged with enforcing the truce along the frontiers.
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