An Israeli soldier was killed last night when the jeep he was driving was struck by a bazooka shell fired from ambush along a road south of Tirat Zvi in the Beisan Valley, about a mile and a half from the banks of the Jordan River. A second soldier in the jeep was not injured. The attackers evaded a search begun immediately after the incident, and apparently succeeded in escaping across the Jordan River.
The victim was the second Israeli soldier killed in two days in actions with Arab marauders. The first fell in a clash Monday night with El Fatah terrorists in the vicinity of the Ben Shemen youth colony and agricultural school, near Lydda Airport, in which one of the raiders was also killed in an exchange of fire. Arabs in a nearby village today could not – or would not – identify the terrorist’s body when requested to do so by Israeli authorities. Meanwhile, helicopters and infantry patrols continued to comb the area for traces of the El Fatah gang.
A handgrenade thrown into a crowd in Gaza market today wounded 36 persons. Israeli police and army officials are investigating the incident, which is seen as an escalation in sabotage actions in the Gaza Strip.
An Arab Communist leader, Faiq Warad, was expelled from the West Bank yesterday by order of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan on charges of incitement to armed rebellion and aiding infiltrators. He was admitted into Jordan, where his identity is known, although the Communist Party is illegal in that country. Warad lived in Ramallah where his family remains.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.