Israeli and Jordanian forces traded artillery fire today along the Jordan River cease-fire line in the wake of yesterday’s El Fatah rocket attack on Eilat which the Israeli Air Force answered with a rocket bombardment of neighboring Aqaba. Both Eilat and Aqaba observed a complete blackout last night. The exchange of fire today, which also involved mortars, took place north of the Allenby Bridge near the Sea of Galilee and lasted some 25 minutes. Further exchanges of fire along the Suez Canal were also reported today following a five-hour artillery duel there yesterday between Egyptian and Israeli forces.
(Israel and Egypt filed counter-charges with the United Nations Security Council yesterday, each accusing the other of responsibility for the cease-fire violation. Israel filed another complaint with the Security Council today, blaming Egypt for the renewal of hostilities.)
Israeli authorities commented today that Jordanian officials should be mindful of the vulnerability of Aqaba, that country’s only outlet to the sea, to Israeli military action. The tacit warnings reflected an awareness that yesterday’s rocket bombardment, for which El Fatah guerrillas took credit, had violated an unwritten understanding that the two Gulf of Aqaba ports would be kept out of the war zone.
Eilat is Israel’s southernmost municipality, port of entry for oil and other materiel, and window to the East, Aqaba, some four miles to the east, services incoming oil, military equipment and food.
Israel claimed after its retaliation attack for the 30-40 Katyusha rockets fired at Eilat that the Arab rockets were triggered from an emplacement in the courtyard of a girls’ school in Aqaba. Amman charged that the Israeli air raid had preceded the rocket attack and asserted that the rockets had been fired from the hills outside the town.
Some 13 or 14 Israelis were wounded as the rockets struck buildings and cars in Eilat. Jordan charged that eight persons were killed and nine wounded in the Israeli reprisal.
Israeli diplomatic observers saw political motives behind the Arab rocket assault. One theory was that El Fatah wanted to embarrass King Hussein while he was having discussions in Washington to show that, in taking a “moderate” stand on Mideast affairs, he was not speaking for the Palestinians, who oppose any settlement which would accept Israel’s existence. Another hypothesis was that the King may have tolerated–or even authorized–the attack to emphasize the warning that he made in the United States that the Mideast situation was “explosive” and that Big Power intervention may be “inevitable.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
