Israel’s Cabinet heard a report at its weekly session here today about the recent spate of El Fatah terrorist infiltrations into Israel which resulted, this weekend, in two Israeli reprisal raids into Jordan. Despite the fact that the recent El Fatah raids showed they had originated in Jordan, the Cabinet was informed that the enemy attacks had been “guided and inspired” by Syria “who is the main trouble maker against Israel.”
The report to the Cabinet, made by the military authorities, stated at the same time that “Israel cannot absolve from responsibility the countries who lend their territories to gangs that carry out raids into Israel.”
Even while the Cabinet was meeting, information was received that two charges of explosives were discovered today at the Israeli settlement of Kfar Giladi, in the north, near the Lebanese border. The explosives were of the type used by El Fatah. Israeli police took apart the explosives, and traced tracks from the site where these had been found leading to the Lebanese border. A complaint was filed by Israel with the United Nations Israel-Lebanese Mixed Armistice Commission.
The reprisal raids this weekend were carried out by two Israeli military units who had crossed into Jordan shortly before Friday midnight. After evacuating the persons living in homes marked as targets, the Israelis blew up 14 houses believed to have served as bases for some of the recent El Fatah raiders into Israel.
Three of the Israeli soldiers suffered minor wounds in the raids against Kalayat and Hirbeit from which the Fatah commandoes had operated in recent days. The first Israeli unit crossed the Jordan river near Bet Shaanan, and blew up four houses in Kalayat, including the home of the mayor. The troops concentrated their efforts on houses whose inhabitants were known to have aided the El Fatah raiders. Israeli officials said that saboteurs who recently blew up houses in Beit Yosef village came from Kalayat.
The second unit moved into Hirbeit, south of Mount Hebron, and ran into fire from Jordanian police stations which was silenced by Israeli mortars.
ISRAEL’S CHIEF OF STAFF WANTS JORDAN TO CHECK RAIDERS
At a press conference here, Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin said that civil guards in the Jordanian villages resisted and suffered a number of losses. He added that, despite the resistance, “our forces scrupulously observed directives to evacuate civilians and even distributed sweets to the children.”
He said Israel had no desire to raise tensions in the Middle East, but did not want Jordan to take effective measures against the El Fatah raiders. He said Syria was “the only Arab nation openly supporting this terrorist organization, but our principle remains that the country from which terrorists operate is responsible for their actions. This does not lessen Syriar responsibility, however.”
The Israeli communique noted that El Fatah raiders committed during the past three weeks two acts of sabotage in the Negev and Mount Hebron and one act at Bet Shaanan in Galilee. In one of the El Fatah actions, near the Rock of Masada, which is visited daily by hundreds of tourists, a truck carrying a load of children narrowly escaped hitting a mine. A lorry with Israeli soldiers ran over the mine, but no one was hurt.
The regular Israeli convoy to Mount Scopus, the Israeli enclave in Jordanian territory in the Jerusalem area, was halted this weekend by Jordanian border guards. The guards contended that the convoy included an “unwanted member.” Under the Israeli-Jordanian armistice agreement, Israel is entitled to change the police guard and to send supplies to the enclave, which contains the abandoned buildings of the old Hebrew University campus and Hadassah Hospital. The issue was referred to United Nations truce officers and it was hoped the convoy would leave for Mount Scopus next week.
In a related development today, Mahmoud Hidjazi, an Arab infiltrator captured in 1965, once sentenced to death and this year given a new trial, was found guilty by an Israeli military court of shooting at Israeli forces, being a member of an El Fatah gang of saboteurs, and carrying arms. However, the court acquitted him, for lack of proof, of a charge of throwing a hand grenade at Israeli forces. The man had been captured after an unsuccessful El Fatah raid near the Jordanian border. In the last trial, the prosecutor demanded a sentence of life imprisonment. After finding the man guilty on the three counts, the court stated it would hand down its sentence next Tuesday.
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