Israel’s Cabinet Gets Reports of Widespread Acts of Sabotage and Terror

The Cabinet today heard a report by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan on the current security situation, but postponed a discussion of political matters until a special session Tuesday, when it will hear from Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who is now enroute to Israel from the United Nations in New York.

General Dayan included in his report the most recent exchanges of fire with Jordanian forces, and sabotage in the northern sector of the West Bank. He noted that, in all cases, traces left by the saboteurs indicated that they had come and escaped by crossing the Jordan River. The Cabinet also heard detailed reports on a number of other Arab acts of sabotage and terrorism in the last few days. These included:

What might have been a major disaster, at Kibbutz Ashdod Yaacov in the Beisan Valley today, when soldiers harmlessly deactivated six high-explosive charges found near a building within the settlement perimeter. According to an Army spokesman, an anti-vehicle mine was discovered nearby and dismantled. The footprints of four persons were found leading to the Jordanian section of the Yarmuk River, which flows about a mile and a half from the kibbutz. The explosives were discovered at Ashdod Yaacov after a watchman reported that a barbed wire fence had been cut.

The imposition of a curfew on the northern Sinai town of El Arish, this evening as Israeli patrols searched for terrorists who threw a hand grenade at a truckload of tourists from Israel this afternoon, resulting in injuries to eight local residents. None of the tourists were hurt, though the truck was slightly damaged.

The continued discovery and dismantling by Israeli sappers in the West Bank area of anti-vehicle mines, one of which exploded and killed an Arab tractor driver yesterday. This morning, a patrol found two Mark V mines planted on an unpaved road south of Kfar Ruppin, in the Beisan Valley, very near the banks of the Jordan. The footprints of four persons were found leading to and from the river.

The arrest of some 20 El Fatah terrorists in the northern Samaria area by Israeli security service agents. Some members of the group had taken part in the sabotaging of a Dodge assembly plant in Nazareth two weeks ago, while others took part in an attack on a police jeep in Jenin last week. Large quantities of weapons were discovered in the hideouts of the terrorists.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials reported today that a 22-year-old volunteer from Australia was fatally wounded, and four other volunteers from Britain, the United States and Australia were injured when a shell they were handling exploded near the Suez Canal last Wednesday. An Israeli worker was injured in the same accident.

The fatality was suffered by Norman Rosenbaum of Melbourne, whose parents are on a tour of Israel. The injured volunteers were Jack Rosenstein, the American; David May and Peter Kamalson, of Britain; and Joseph Hirsch, of Australia.