Artillery duels between Syrian and Israeli guns in the Lake Tiberias area maintained the tension today following the major raid last night by Israel units who captured and destroyed four Syrian outposts on the eastern shore of the lake and then withdrew to Israel territory. Some 55 Syrian soldiers died and 29 were taken prisoner, while four Israelis were killed and 12 were wounded in the operation.
The latest reports from the Galilee spoke of a continuing exchange of shells between the two sides as each rushed reinforcements into the area. The attack, one of the deadliest of the undeclared border war which has waged along Israel’s frontiers from shortly after the armistice agreements were concluded in 1948-49, was a retaliatory move announced and explained later by Israel authorities. It followed Syrian shelling of an Israel patrol vessel on the lake yesterday.
(Reports from Cairo said that Egyptian and Syrian military and political leaders met there today in an emergency conference to decide whether the Israel action should be the occasion for joint action under the terms of the recently concluded Egyptian-Syrian military pact against Israel.)
The Israel raid a four-pronged maneuver, caught the Syrians unprepared and smashed through most of the Arab defenses before the Syrian troops could be rallied Some fought stubbornly but many fled into the interior as the Israel mopped up and blasted gun emplacements before withdrawing. The four parts here all situated along an eight-mile front between Eingeb, an Israel fishing village on the eastern shore of Lake Tiberias, and the Jordan estuary farther to the north. United Nations observers arrived on the scene from both Israeli and Syrian bases after the attack was announced.
ISRAEL COMPLAINS TO ARMISTICE BODY ON SYRIAN SHELLING
The entire lake and a strip of land 10 meters wide (about 33 feet) around the lake is Israel territory and has been recognized as such by the Mixed Armistice Commission. For ears the Syrians have interfered with Israel fishermen particularly on the north-east section of the lake, and have killed and wounded a number of Israelis and destroyed their boats and nets.
A statement by an Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman outlined the history of Israel-Syrian relations along Lake Tiberias, including numerous, fruitless complaints to the MAC. Today, he said, fishermen were able to spread their nets in quiet and Lake Tiberias would remain quiet as long as the Syrians wished it so. Yesterday, before the raid a formal complaint on the latest Syrian shelling of the Israel patrol boat was delivered to the MAC.
Informed sources here pointed out today that Syrian firing on fishing boats last year had not only cost lives, but had forced the fishermen to abandon 100,000 pounds worth of nets and fish when the Syrians opened fire. The fishing industry in the area was paralyzed and at Eingev where the community depends on the processing of fish, demands were voiced for government assistance for the hundreds of workers rendered jobless by Syrian attacks.
The fishing season for this year is about to begin–particularly in the eastern section of the lake where warm underground springs attract large numbers of fish. The fishermen work mostly at night by lamp, and are easy targets for Syrian gunners.
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