Eshkol Reports to Cabinet on Increased Arab Sabotage; Warns Syria

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol told the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet here today that the Government takes a “very serious” view of the increase in recent Syrian attempts at sabotage in Israel. In his statement, Mr. Eshkol reviewed the various efforts at sabotage aimed at creating havoc inside Israel in the last 10 days.

Two more acts of sabotage by Arab infiltrators, one of them resulting in the blowing up of a pumping station and the other endangering a railroad line, were reported today. The pumping station is owned by Kibbutz Misgav Am, located about two and a half miles from the border where Israel, Syria and Lebanon meet. Posters bearing the insignia of El Fatah, the terrorist group of Arab infiltrators, were found near the site of the explosion.

The threat against the railway line was discovered near Kfar Saba, about 100 yards from the Jordanian border. Railroad track walkers found a hand grenade attached to one of the rails, and dismantled the explosive before any damage had been caused.

A military spokesman reported today that an Israeli army patrol foiled a sabotage attempt to blow up a building in the 94th terrorist raid into Israel in the past 24 months. The patrol found explosives placed underneath an uninhabited house near the border in the western Upper Galilee area, and defused them. Footprints of three persons were found leading to the nearby Lebanese border.

In another development, officials reported that Syrians had increased their penetration into the Tel Katzir area southeast of Lake Tiberias. A Syrian flock also was seen grazing in the Ein Gev Kibbutz field, in eastern Tiberias. Apparently the Syrians wished to gain holding rights in those areas which have been hitherto cultivated only by Israelis in the demilitarized zones, the official said.