Units of Israel’s Air Force went into action today to knock out Jordanian long-range artillery that was indiscriminately shelling Israeli settlements in the Jordan and Beisan Valleys. The barrage, the most ferocious in months, caused the deaths of three Israeli civilians, one of them a woman, and injuries to six other civilians and a border policeman. Extensive damage was reported in at least five settlements that came under Jordanian shell fire. Ripening wheat fields and harvested crops, representing a full year’s work, were reported burning or destroyed by fires set by the shells.
A military spokesman said the Air Force was called to action when Israeli return fire fell short of the Jordanian guns that were dug in around the town of Irbid, about 18 miles east of the Israeli border. The planes pinpointed targets for Israeli artillery and attacked targets that were beyond the range of the Israeli guns. The planes were unopposed by Jordanian aircraft and all returned safely to their bases, a military spokesman reported. The fighting was reported to have ended at 6:15 p.m. local time.
(Jordan complained to the United States Embassy in Amman and in the United Nations today that Israel had used ground-to-ground rockets to “blow up” the city of Irbid. The Jordanians claimed that 30 persons were killed and 60 injured, most of them civilians. The Jordanian complaint to the UN was contained in a letter from Ambassador Muhammed H. El-Farra to Arthur J. Goldberg, this month’s president of the Security Council.
(Israel’s UN Ambassador, Yosef Tekoah, filed a counter complaint with Goldberg. He said that Jordanian attacks on Israeli villages this afternoon resulted in at least three deaths and five persons injured. He listed the settlements attacked as Neveh Ur, Gesher, Yardena, Bet Yosef and Ashdot Yaacov. Mr. Tekoah said the Israel Air Force was called “to take action in self-defense to silence the sources of fire.” He stated also that “during recent days Jordanian attacks across the River Jordan against Israeli villages have become more frequent and intensive. They have been accompanied by a concerted campaign of warlike threats and incitement to violence emanating from Amman. Today’s act of aggression as well as those which preceded it, and the campaign of threats and incitement, constitute grave violations by Jordan of the cease-fire. The Jordanian Government is duty bound to put an immediate end to such breaches of the cease-fire and to observe it scrupulously.” Neither Tekoah nor Mr. El-Farra requested a meeting of the Security Council. Both asked that their letters be circulated as Security Council documents.)
BATTLE ESCALATED FROM SERIES OF SHELLINGS BEGINNING AT MIDNIGHT
Today’s battle escalated from a series of shellings started by the Jordanians around midnight last night and resumed by them between 11 a.m. and noon today. The initial target was a field near the Beisan Valley settlement of Neveh Ur where farmers were at work. When Israeli units returned the fire, the Jordanians resorted to a familiar tactic of shifting to other targets. Kfar Ruppin, Maoz Chaim and Hamadiyah each came under intense shelling. As the barrage increased in intensity during the afternoon. Israeli forces brought up additional artillery, tanks and mortars which dueled with Jordanian units across the river. The Jordanians then resorted to their long-range artillery. Unofficial sources here described them as “long Toms,” British-made cannons. Other sources identified the guns as being of U.S. manufacture and of a type used in Vietnam.
Israeli sources did not confirm the Jordanian charge that ground-to-ground rockets were used against Irbid, a city of 100,000. But Israeli jets, helicopters, tanks, artillery and mortars were in action. It was reported that some 25,000 Iraqi troops are stationed east of Irbid.
(The Jordanian Government claimed today that four Israeli jets were shot down, four Israeli tanks destroyed and three artillery positions blasted. They said the Allenby Bridge, over the Jordan, was blown up and claimed to have inflicted “heavy casualties” on Israeli forces.)
High-ranking Israeli officers attributed the latest military clash with Jordan to tensions building up in the Arab countries as the first anniversary of the Six-Day War approached. They also cited rumors circulating in the Arab press that Israel was planning a massive assault on Jordan on the anniversary to wipe out the Iraqi battalions stationed there.
Military spokesmen said today’s action extended along a front of about 18 miles, from Hamadiyah to Ashdod Yaacov and Afikim. They said a small exchange of fire also took place near Al Hamma where Jordanians used tank-fire to attack Israeli positions on the Golan Heights
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