Egged, Israel’s inter-city bus line, inaugurated non-stop service to Cairo today, a 10-hour trip via northern Sinai interrupted only by a brief ferry crossing of the Suez Canal at Kantara.
Modem air conditioned buses equipped with toilet facilities and a refreshment bar will leave the Tel Aviv central bus terminal at 7:30 a.m. daily. An Egyptian bus will leave Cairo at the same time each day for Tel Aviv. The buses cross the Israel Sinai border at Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. That border cross point and one at Nitzana were opened after some delay that followed Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai last Sunday.
This evening, the first Egyptian bus ever to enter Israel arrived at the Tel Aviv bus terminal from Cairo. It discharged eight passengers, all Israelis returning from Egypt. There were no Egyptian passengers aboard.
TABA BORDER CROSSING OPENED
Meanwhile, the border crossing at Taba, near Eilat, was finally opened for vehicular traffic this afternoon and the first Israeli cars to cross the line since Egypt regained full control of Sinai last Sunday, made their way south to Sharm el-Sheikh and other beach resorts. Until today, the Taba crossing had been open for pedestrians only because Egyptian officials had not received full instructions from Caira on compulsory auto insurance requirements.
The Taba crossing point is temporary. Its permanent location will be determined by negotiations between Israel and Egypt over a disputed beach area about one kilometer long.
Both countries signed an interim agreement this week to submit the dispute to “conciliation…or arbitration” as provided for under Article 7 of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. The Israeli Foreign Ministry was embarrassed today when it found that the hastily drawn map of Sinai which it issued with a background information paper placed Taba on the Egyptian side of the Sinai border. Ministry officials attributed the gaffe to “human error.” The map was prepared by the Carta Map Co. of Jerusalem.
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