Israel today replied to Egyptian complaints to the U.N. that the Israelis occupied positions in the Negev after the latest ceasefire and that the Rhodes armistice negotiations should be delayed pending Israeli withdrawal from these positions. The Arabs insisted to the U.N. yesterday that the Jews captured some positions in the Rafah area after the fighting should have ceased.
Terming the Egyptian complaints “incomprehensible,” an Israeli spokesman stated that the only movement of Jewish troops that occurred in that area after the cease-fire was the withdrawal from positions captured prior to the cessation of hostilities. It was learned, however, that the Egyptian delay was a result of intervention by the British who hope to hold up the Rhodes talks.
United Nations observers have been dispatched to the scene of the allegedcease-fire violations to check on the Egyptian complaints. They were accompanied by Israeli liaison officers.
David Crossley Tattersfield, the British pilot who died when his plane crashed in flames near the Jewish settlement of Nirim, was buried today in the British war cemetery at Ramleh with full military honors.
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