An Israeli soldier was killed Saturday night when hit by sniper fire in the Suez Canal area. During the last two days, two Israeli soldiers were injured in the Canal sector when an army vehicle hit a mine south of Port Tewfik. A civilian bus also struck a mine in the same area but there were no passengers in it. Two tractor drivers were injured in the Canal area on Shavuot eve.
During the holiday, Jordanians shelled religious settlements of Tirat Zvi and Ein Hanaziv. The Katyusha rockets caused fire in fields which were dry because of unusual heat in the area. A border policeman was injured Friday when an Israeli patrol was attacked near Beth Yossef in the Beisan Valley.
Egypt claimed Thursday to have downed an Israeli jet and routed five others that attempted to invade Egypt air space 300 miles south of Cairo. Cairo radio said the French-built Mirages were intercepted by Soviet-built Mig 21s over the Red Sea. It claimed one plane was seen plunging into the sea while the others fled. An Israeli spokesman denied the report. “None of our planes has been shot down,” he said. “There are no grounds for the announcement whatsoever.”
The effective use of the Hawk ground-to-air missile Wednesday when the American-made high speed missile destroyed an Egyptian MIG-21 and possibly destroyed a second Egyptian fighter was believed here to have taken the Egyptians completely by surprise. Aviation authorities said that there was no case on record in Vietnam in which the Hawk missile hit a Russian-built or Chinese-built Mig and that it was entirely likely that the Israeli crew manning the Hawk missile launcher had scored a “first.”
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