New Israeli Highway Bypassing Suez Canal Used for First Time

A new highway that bypasses the Suez Canal was used for the first time today to transport 250 tons of freshly-caught fish from a trawler docked at Israel’s Gulf of Akaba Port of Eilat to a Greek cargo vessel at Israel’s Mediterranean Port of Ashdod. The fish, from the trawler “Dolphini,” was transported by refrigerated trucks over the Eilat-Ashdod highway in the first practical test of the land route that cuts through the Negev Desert. If the experiment is successful, it will permit Greek fishing vessels to continue operating in the Red Sea and to send their catches home without passing through the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, it was reported here that a foreign country has approached Israeli authorities on the possibility of transporting more than 20 barges over the land route from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Akaba outlet of the Red Sea. The barges, destined for a Far Eastern country, were built before the Six-Day War but could not be shipped because of the shut-down of the Suez Canal by Egypt.