A water pumping station was damaged by explosive charges last night at Kibbutz Neveh Eitan in the southern Beisan Valley as Jordanian units on the East Bank of the river fired mortar shells at nearby settlements. The incidents occurred at about 9:30 p.m., local time, when mortar shells fell in the Tirat Zvi area. An hour later, shells fell near Maoz Chaim and an explosion was heard at Neveh Eitan. An investigation disclosed that explosives had been placed in the pumping station, the first El Fatah sabotage since last Friday’s fighting along the Israel-Jordan demarcation line.
The curfew on Hebron was lifted today following the arrest of 20 suspects in the fatal shooting of an Israeli border policeman in the town’s marketplace on Sunday. The suspects will be screened for El Fatah members on the wanted list. When those are weeded out, the others will be released, it was reported today. The shooting was the first incident of its kind in Hebron since the June war.
(The London Daily Telegraph said today that Israel is building roads near the Jordanian border to permit the rapid deployment of troops against guerrilla bands crossing over from the east bank of the river. The paper also said that Israel was experimenting with secret electronic devices that would make it easier to detect infiltrators.)
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.