Fighting continued today across the Suez Canal and along the Israel-Jordan border where two Israeli Air Force jets went into action to destroy mortar positions that were shelling Israeli settlements in the Beisan Valley.
A military spokesman said the shelling was the work of Jordanian regulars who added 81-mm. mortar fire to the bazooka and small arms fire aimed by guerrillas at Ashdod Yaacov, Neve Urr and Bet Yosef. The jets silenced the mortar positions. Heavy smoke was seen rising from the site by Israeli farmers after the attack. No casualties were reported on the Israeli side. But an Israeli soldier was reported slightly wounded in a clash with guerrillas two miles north of the Dead Sea.
Fighting erupted along the Suez Canal for the 10th consecutive day. Artillery, tanks and other weapons dueled from Port Suez, near the canal’s southern entrance, to the Bitter Lakes region. In Cairo, in line with the Arab tactics of building up the threat of renewed war, the semi-official Al Ahram warned that the fighting would escalate. It urged a Big Four settlement for the area before a new war erupted in the Middle East.
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