The burden of establishing Israel’s new defense lines in Sinai and the evacuation of the present lines will fall mainly on the army engineers corps and on military sappers who face the tough and dangerous job of clearing minefields and destroying underground bunkers, subterranean storage dumps and other military installations that cannot be moved military sources said today.
The new line runs southwards from the Mediterranean, near Rumani, through the hilly region where it turns eastward to the entrances of the Gidi and Mitle Passes and then west again toward the Gulf of Suez. The new line runs parallel to the Gulf to a point south of the Abu Rodeis oilfields.
The army is already engaged in a massive moving operation that will remove every portable object of military value including prefabricated structures, observation posts and barbed wire. A new line of bunkers is being built on the new lines and as minefields are cleared in the area that will become the United Nations-manned buffer zone, new minefields are being laid in the forward areas of the Israeli military zone. The last positions to be evacuated by Israel will be Balooza on the Mediterranean coast and Tassa, on the Refidim-Suez Canal road.
NEW LINES DEFINED IN ANNEX
The new lines are defined in the Annex to the interim agreement. As in the earlier disengagement agreement, the buffer zone is flanked on both sides by zones of limited forces and armaments. Access to the buffer zones will be controlled by the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) according to procedures worked out by the Israeli and Egyptian working teams and UNEF.
Aircraft of each side will be permitted to fly freely up to the forward line of that side. Reconnaissance aircraft of either party may fly up to the middle line of the buffer zone. Within the buffer zone there will be established, under Art. IV of the agreement, an early warning system entrusted to U.S. civilian personnel as detailed in a separate proposal which is part of the agreement.
Authorized personnel will have access to the buffer zone for transit to and from the early warning stations. The manner in which that will be carried out will be determined by the working teams and UNEF. In that area, the UNEF will assure that there are no military or para-military forces of any kind or military fortifications or military installations. It will establish checkpoints and have the freedom of movement to perform its functions.
Egyptian civilians and third-country civilian oil field personnel will have the right to enter and exit from work and to live in the area of the oilfields, except for the buffer zones and the UN posts. Egyptian civilian police will be allowed to perform normal civil police functions among the civilian population in such numbers and equipped with such weapons as provided for in the military protocols to be worked out at Geneva.
Entry and exit from the area by land, sea or air will be only through UNEF checkpoints which will be established on the dividing lines of the buffer zone and at other points. Their precise location will be determined by the military protocols.
Access to air space and the coastal area evacuated by Israel will be limited to unarmed civilian helicopters and transport planes and unarmed civilian vessels involved in civilian activities. Israel has agreed to leave intact existing civilian installations.
The Annex provides for a continuation of aerial reconnaissance missions by the U.S. over the area covered by the agreement. The U.S. will make the reconnaissance results available to both Israel and Egypt and to the chief coordinator of the UN peace-keeping mission in the Mideast.
ARMS LIMITATION OUTLINED
The agreement limits arms in the limited forces zones of both sides to: Eight standard infantry battalions; 75 tanks; 60 artillery pieces including heavy mortars whose range shall not exceed 12 kilometers. The total number of personnel on both sides cannot exceed 8000. Both sides agreed not to locate weapons in the area which could reach the lines of the other side. They also agreed to construct no new fortifications or installations greater than those agreed to.
The parties will not place anti-aircraft missiles within an area of 10 kilometers from their respective lines. UN forces will conduct inspections to ensure that the agreements are observed in all respects.
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