Syrian gunners resumed their shooting today at Israel targets in the demilitarized zone southeast of Lake Tiberias, wounding an Israel patrolman. The fire was returned.
Reports from the sector indicated that the latest attack came from Syrian positions in Tel Azaziat, the source of earlier Syrian firing. The new casualty was the second in 24 hours. One patrolman was seriously injured last night in Syrian shelling of the Beit Katzir village in the zone.
Neither Syria nor Israel had yet replied today to the request of Col. Raymond Pirlot, chairman of the Syrian Israel Mixed Armistice Commission, for immediate withdrawal of their armed forces from the zone, according to a MAC spokesman.
The spokesman said that Gen. Carl C. von Horn, chief of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, was continuing efforts to reactivate the commission in a bid to reduce tension in the zone. The last time the commission met, in 1957, the Syrian members sought to open a discussion of the status of the zone which Israel considers as entirely within Israel territory and therefore excluded from any Syrian claims.
The Israel position in regard to talks with Syria under UN auspices, it was officially reiterated today, remained one of readiness to discuss reduction of tension and restoration of peaceful conditions within the framework of the commission, or in informal talks with UN officials participating. In either case, it was emphasized, Israel participation was conditioned on an explicit UN guarantee that the status quo of the demilitarized zone was not open to discussion by Syria.
(At the United Nations, Secretary General Dag Hammarakjold told a press conference today that Israel and Syria had both committed themselves to demarcation of the border “but nothing very much has happened.” He said that on the basis of the information which he received, “things on the Israel-Syrian border are gliding toward a quiet period which. I hope, will lead into negotiations between the two parties under the aegis of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization.” The line of the United Nations, he stressed, must be implementation of the Syrian-Israel Armistice Agreement which requires that the demilitarized zone should be demilitarized.)
In a formal written complaint to the UN Security Council, Israel last night charged that the clash with Syrian forces in the Lake Tiberias area is due to “Syrian acts of aggression in the demilitarized zone” which came “In the wake of an intensification by the United Arab Republic of her policy of active belligerency towards Israel.” This policy according to the Israeli charges,” creates a constant threat to peace in the area.”
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