Less than 24 hours after the departure of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold from Jordan, two aggressive acts by Jordanians against Israel took place, violating the cease-fire agreement which Mr. Hammarskjold has insisted must be observed.
One of the incidents involved an attack by Jordanian infiltrators on an Israeli children’s village near Jerusalem early this morning. The other was the planting by Jordanians of a mine near Kastel, in the Jerusalem area, where Jordanian troops had opened fire on Israelis several times yesterday.
UN Secretary General Hammarskjold returned to Geneva today from his flying trip to Israel, Jordan and Egypt where he had talks with government leaders in each of the three countries, aimed at maintaining tranquility along the Arab-Israeli frontiers. He announced that he would return to the Middle East in October shortly before the opening of the next United Nations General Assembly in New York in November.
ISRAEL TO SEEK EXPLANATION FROM U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL
Israeli leaders indicated, however, that in the light of the incidents yesterday and today they will ask Mr. Hammarskjold what he accomplished regarding implementation of the cease-fire agreement during his stay in Jordan yesterday. “Israel will consider its policy toward Jordan in the light of whatever assurances the UN Secretary General may have obtained from the Jordan Government,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said here today.
“At the last meeting of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission,” the Israeli official pointed out, “the Israeli delegation declared that it saw no value in additional condemnations when previous resolutions adopted by the Commission remained unneeded by Jordan. Now, with aggression continuing, the question is again asked whether reliance can be placed on the Mixed Armistice Commission as an effective organ for reducing border tension.”
When UN truce chief Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns returned from Cairo tonight, where he had gone with Mr. Hammarskjold, he was summoned to the Foreign Ministry by Foreign Minister Golda Myerson to discuss Jordan’s “blatant non-compliance” with its cease-fire pledge. Mrs. Myerson demanded a forceful demarche to the Jordan Government and asked that as UN Chief of Staff he inform the Security Council of Jordan’s aggressions.
In the attack this morning on the Israeli children’s village, the Jordanian infiltrators threw a hand grenade into the hallway of a dormitory, but none of the sleeping children was hit. They then sprayed a bus standing in the courtyard with bullets. The attack occurred at the Maaleh Hachamisha settlement. There were no casualties.
Syrian troops opened fire today on a group of Israeli workers in fields north of Huleh, but hit no one. An Israeli police patrol returned the fire, but the Israeli workers continued at their jobs.
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