Beisan Valley Settlements Mourn Dead, Count Losses After Day Under Arab Gunfire

Beisan Valley settlements mourned their dead today and totaled up the damage resulting from yesterday’s ferocious artillery barrage by Jordanian long range guns that were silenced only after Israeli Air Force jets went into action against them. The dead were identified as 32-year-old Ovadia Beracha, the mother of three small children, who was killed in the shelling of Kibbutz Neveh Ur; Chaim Trevis, a student from Jerusalem who was killed as he entered the bomb shelter at Ashdot Yaacov; and a 24-year-old-member of Kibbutz Kinneret, whose name was not given. He was killed when shells struck the plywood factory at Sefen.

(The United Nations Security Council went into urgent session tonight at the request of Israel and Jordan made earlier in the day. The Jordanian letter to Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg, Council president, asked for the meeting because of “the grave situation resulting from Israel’s aggression against Jordan.” The Israel request stressed “the grave and continued violations of the cease-fire by Jordan.” A subsequent letter to Mr. Goldberg from Ambassador Yosef Tekoah listed 11 attacks by Jordan since May 25.)

(In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert J. McCloskey said the United States had admonished both Israel and Jordan for yesterday’s clash and had urged them to “scrupulously abide” by the terms of the cease-fire agreements. The spokesman asserted that “these events emphasize again the need for the United Nations or other unbiased observers in the area.”)

ESHKOL PROMISES THAT ISRAEL WILL DEFEND EVERY TOWN AND SETTLEMENT

Speaking in Tel Aviv last night, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol pledged that Israel would use its full might to protect the safety of its citizens in every town and settlement. He told a convention of immigrants from North Africa that Israel wants peace and quiet along its borders but will meet every threat with force until peace comes. He said that peace cannot be maintained on one side of the border while the other side makes war. Mr. Eshkol said that the Air Force had been called into action yesterday because Jordanian guns were shelling peaceful citizens working in fields and factories in the Beisan and Jordan valleys.

The Chief of Staff of Israel’s armed forces, Maj. Gen. Chaim Bar Lev, visited Neveh Ur last night. Referring to the air strike against the Jordanian gun emplacements, he said he hoped the Amman regime had learned a lesson that Israeli villages cannot be attacked with impunity and that it would restrain Itself in the future. According to eyewitness reports. Israeli gunners and pilots scored direct hits on the Jordanian positions. Fires were seen burning for hours, mainly around Jordanian artillery batteries.

But Israeli settlements suffered heavy damages, apart from the loss of lives. At least 250 shells struck Ashdot Yaacov, which is not a single settlement but two neighboring ones whose members belong to different political factions within the Israel Labor Party. In both, water pipes and electric lines were destroyed and dining rooms and cowsheds suffered direct hits. Kibbutz Gesher was hit by at least 50 shells which destroyed a barn and a fuel storage tank and blasted a fish-breeding pond. Several houses were damaged at Beth Joseph. The Sefen plywood factory was closed until the damage it sustained is repaired.

The Beisan Valley was quiet this morning, for the first time in four days. Settlers who spent most of yesterday in bomb shelters were working their fields today.