Israel Air Force jets attacked Egyptian positions in the northern and southern sectors of the Suez Canal zone for 45 minutes today and returned safely to base. A military spokesman said the attacks began shortly past noon local time. An Israeli officer, 21 year-old Lt. Yigael Samocha, of Tel Aviv, was killed last night in an exchange of fire between Israeli and Egyptian forces in the southern sector of the Suez Canal zone. Two other soldiers were wounded. An Israeli position in the central Golan Heights was attacked with mortar and bazooka fire from Syrian territory last night. The fire was returned. No Israeli casualties were reported.
A number of shells were fired from Lebanese territory last night on an Israeli position on the western slopes of Mt. Hermon. The fire was returned. There were no casualties. Jordanian regulars joined guerrillas in bazooka attacks on various points in the Beisan Valley. An Israeli spokesman said the fire was returned in all instances and no casualties were reported. Three Arab saboteurs were killed by an Israeli patrol in the Gaza Strip today. They were shot when they tried to evade capture during a search for suspected terrorists in the Djebaliya quarter near Gaza.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine boasted today that it was responsible for a series of attacks on American property in Beirut during the past few days. The group claimed that the U.S. was fomenting trouble between Lebanese forces and the commandos operating against Israel from Lebanese soil. Meanwhile, President Charles Helou of Lebanon has called for “rapid implementation” of the 1967 United Nations cease-fire by the Security Council, the Big Four or the Big Two because Middle East peace prospects are growing “more remote every day” and a military solution is imminent. He has also urged the Big Four “to solve the entire Arab-Israeli problem and in the meantime effectively to disavow any Israeli threat against Lebanon, which he said would be carried out militarily if his country does not “adopt a policy of violence and civil war toward the Palestinian population.” President Helou’s views were carried in an interview in Baabda with correspondent John K. Cooley in today’s Christian Science Monitor. He did not expand on his call for American “understanding.” Lebanon has been on friendly terms with the United States.
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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.
