The 10-day old cease-fire on the Egyptian front was broken for an hour today by an intermittent shooting exchange which an Israeli military spokesman said was touched off by a movement of soldiers in the trapped Egyptian Third Army toward Israeli positions on the Sinai side of the Suez Canal.
Col. Nachman Karni, the spokesman, said the incident did not affect a fourth meeting between Israeli and Egyptian military officers on the eastern side, nor the movements of supply trucks through Israeli lines on the west side of the canal for transfer to the isolated Third Army. Karni said the officers discussed the issue of Israeli prisoners of war held by Egypt, as well as the needs of 15,000 civilians in Port Said, which Karni said also was surrounded.
He said that the initial response of Israeli units to the movement of the Egyptian troops was to fire warning shots but that when the troops kept moving, the Israelis began firing at the troops. Egyptian artillery fire followed, along with tank movements, both of which were halted when Israeli forces began shooting, Karni said. He added there were no Israeli casualties.
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