Israel Air Force Jets Hit Egyptian Military Targets and Return Home Safely

Israel Air Force jets attacked Egyptian military targets in the central sector of the Suez Canal zone for 40 minutes today and returned safely to their bases, a military spokesman announced. Israeli forces repulsed an attempt by guerrillas to storm a position in the Golan Heights last night. The attack was preceded by bazooka and small arms fire from Syrian territory. Israeli return fire forced the guerrillas to retreat across the cease-fire line. There were no Israeli casualties.

Israeli officials have taken a serious view of last night’s bazooka attack on Hanita settlement in Western Galilee. There were no casualties or damage but the attack indicated that guerrilla gangs operating in Lebanon have extended their area of activity against Israel. Hanita is a prosperous settlement founded in 1937 after the Arab riots. Though it is located close to the Lebanese border it had never previously come under attack, even during Israel’s 1948 war for independence. An Israeli spokesman said the guerrillas, with a free hand from Lebanese authorities, are enlarging their front. Previously, guerrilla attacks from Lebanese soil were confined to the eastern regions of the border. The spokesman said that further attacks would bring retaliation against Lebanese border villages that shelter saboteurs.

A local Arab doctor from El Arish in northern Sinai, was injured yesterday when a mobile clinic he was riding in struck a mine. Dr. Ibrahim Salem, 44, was sent to an Israeli hospital. The clinic was ministering to Bedouin tribes. Israeli authorities disclosed that several houses were blown up in Fajjar village near Hebron this week following the discovery of two large arms caches and a terrorist cell in the village. Mrs. Dan Avidan, the wife of an Israel Army Captain captured by the Egyptians in the Suez Canal zone reports that she has received postcards from her husband through the International Red Cross. She said he wrote that he was well.