Israel Air Force Stages Three Attacks on Egyptian Positions Near Suez Canal

Israel Air Force jets staged three attacks on Egyptian positions inside and beyond the Suez Canal zone today and returned safely to their bases. A military spokesman said two morning attacks struck at military targets about 18 miles west of the canal. An attack launched early this afternoon blasted Egyptian positions and gun emplacements in the central section of the waterway. Israeli ground fire brought down an Egyptian MIG-17 in the northern section of the canal zone yesterday. The plane was one of a flight of eight Egyptian MIGs attacking Israeli positions on the east bank of the Suez Canal for the fifth consecutive day. Israeli fighters shot down three MIG-21s in a dogfight over Egyptian territory last Thursday.

Yesterday’s attack was made by Israeli soldiers who scored direct hits on the low-flying MIG. It exploded in midair and fragments fell on the Egyptian side of the canal. There were no Israeli casualties resulting from the Egyptian air attack. A military spokesman reported today that there has been a substantial increase in terrorist activity along the Lebanese border. The report led observers here to predict some form of Israeli military action against Lebanon very shortly. On Friday night saboteurs from Lebanon damaged two electric pylons, an equipment shed and an automobile near the settlement of Metzudat Yesher in Upper Galilee. In another incident, a house in Shemora settlement was blown up but its occupants were unhurt. The military spokesman said that terrorists encamped on the Lebanese side of the border can be expected to increase their forays with the approach of spring and improved weather conditions.

Israeli security forces blew up two houses in Hebron today. The buildings belonged to suspected terrorists, one of them a relative of Hebron’s Mayor Sheikh Jaabari. An Army vehicle was attacked in the Hebron area yesterday but there were no casualties. Grenade attacks in the Gaza Strip Friday took the life of a 13 year-old Arab boy and injured 39 other persons, all but three of them Arab residents of Gaza. Israeli authorities announced today that the death toll for February resulting from military and terrorist activities totaled 21 Israeli soldiers and two civilians, one of them an American tourist. The heaviest loss of life was sustained on the Suez Canal front where 17 Israeli soldiers were killed during the month by Egyptian gunfire. They include two soldiers who subsequently died of their wounds, Sgt. Daniel Fissuti, 21, of Beth Shemesh and Corp. Aviv Shehori. Five Israeli soldiers were killed during the month in the Gaza Strip, three in the Jordan Valley and one in the Golan Heights.