Defense Minister Moshe Dayan reported to the Knesset yesterday that United Nations Observer’s posts on the Israel-occupied side of the Suez Canal were hit by Egyptian shell fire 39 times in the first five months of this year and suffered blast and shrapnel damage in nine other instances from shells that landed nearby. Gen. Dayan said his figures come from reports published by the UN Secretariat.
He said they showed that UN posts on the Egyptian side of the canal were hit only twice in the same period by Israeli fire and sustained only light damage. The posts on the Israeli side were either destroyed or suffered severe damage, he said. According to Gen. Dayan, Egyptian artillery units stationed themselves in close proximity to the UN posts, in one case less than a yard away.
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