Israel Air Force planes attacked Egyptian positions in the central section of the Suez Canal zone for 15 minutes today and returned safely to their bases. Four Israeli soldiers were killed on the Egyptian front over the week-end as new fighting erupted there and flared all along Israel’s borders and cease-fire lines from the Lebanese frontier in the Northwest to the desert reaches south of the Dead Sea. Eight Arab guerrillas were killed in the latter region last night in a clash with an Israeli patrol. A suspected terrorist was killed in the Gaza Strip this morning when be tried to escape an identity check. Two residents of the Arab town of Ramaliah were wounded when a hand grenade exploded in a street today. More than a dozen Israeli settlements came under Katyusha rocket fire Friday and Saturday from behind the Lebanese and Syrian borders and in the Beisan and Jordan valleys. The only casualties were a settler in Dafna who was slightly wounded Friday morning and a settler in Avivim who was wounded in an exchange of fire with saboteurs who crossed into Israel from Lebanon Friday night.
A military spokesman said the most serious action occurred in and around the Suez Canal zone. Three Israeli soldiers were killed there Friday afternoon when their vehicle struck a mine north of Kantara. They were identified as Lt. Aryeb Bombiger, 22, of Staryah settlement and Pvt. Nissim Yanov, of Kibbutz Regavim and Pvt. Mordecai Baum of Uddim, both 21, Sgt, Assaf Shofet, 20, of Givat Hen, was fatally wounded when his patrol was attacked by anti-tank guns and mortar fire in the Mitleh region Saturday afternoon. Israeli and Egyptian forces exchanged heavy artillery and mortar fire in the southern region of the canal zone Friday night and Saturday morning. There were no Israeli causalities. Targets of Katyusha rockets, apparently fired by guerrilla forces, were Kiryat Shemona near the Lebanese border, Belean township facing the Jordanian demarcation line, Moshav Margallot in Upper Galilee, Kaliya on the north shores of the Dead Sea and the Potash Works at Sdom on the south shore. A military spokesman said at least ten settlements came under fire in the past 24 hours.
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