Israel’s Defense Gen. Minister Moshe Dayan paid a personal condolence call on the family of an Arab woman killed by Israeli soldiers yesterday in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and visited nine other Arab women recovering from wounds in the local hospital. Gen. Dayan promised compensation but said that Israel would exercise its full power to maintain order and prevent incidents of sabotage and terror that have plagued the Gaza Strip in recent weeks. An explosive charge was hurled from a speeding car at the wall of the Military Governor’s headquarters in Gaza today but did little damage. The car disappeared in traffic. A search was started for the occupants.
Six Arab saboteurs were killed last night in two encounters with Israeli forces in the Negev, halfway between the Dead Sea and the port of Eilat. There were no Israeli casualties, a military spokesman said.
The Gaza military government announced meanwhile that it was investigating the death of the Arab woman and the wounding of nine others by machine gun bursts fired by Israeli soldiers trying to disperse a group of demonstrators in Rafah. A curfew was imposed on the town yesterday but was lifted this morning. The demonstration, by Arab women, erupted as Israeli forces rounded up 16 suspects in a recent rash of sabotage and hauled them off to a detention camp for questioning. The women, apparently incited by Cairo radio broadcasts claiming successes for El Fatah terrorists, started to march on the camp. They were blocked by Israeli guards who fired warning shots over their heads. But one burst was low and sprayed the crowd.
A military spokesman said last night’s clashes in the Negev occurred northeast and south of Ein Yahav, a settlement near the Dead Sea. In the first encounter, five saboteurs were killed and two escape across the Jordanian border. In the second, a band of three saboteurs was wiped out. Both groups were believed to have been attempting a coordinated attack on an American farm. Ovot, near Ein Yahav. A large quantity of arms and ammunition was seized, including Russian-made Kalatchnikof rifles, hand grenades and explosives.
An exchange of mortar fire between Israeli and Jordanian forces was reported last night near Neot Hakikar, south of the Dead Sea. There were no casualties.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
