One Israeli soldier was killed and two were wounded in the second of two clashes with Arab marauders near the Jordan River last night, a military spokesman announced today. Two Arab marauders were killed in the earlier clash. The dead Israeli soldier was a member of the Druze community, a non-Arab Moslem sect loyal to Israel.
The night was also marked by the renewed shelling of Israeli settlements in the Beisan Valley by Jordanian units, the first such attacks on civilian areas since last Feb. 15. Jordanian artillery also fired on Israeli forces at the Tsuts passage, a Jordan River ford near Nevah Or, which was the scene of last night’s first encounter between Arab raiders and an Israeli patrol. The Jordanian guns were silenced after an exchange of fire that began at noon and lasted one and a half hours.
According to a military spokesman, the Israeli patrol spotted seven marauders crossing the river and opened fire when they drew near. Two fell and the rest scattered. Two Russian assault guns were found on the bodies. In the second encounter, a small Israeli patrol surprised a band of raiders less than 60 yards from the Jordan River. One Israeli soldier was killed instantly and two of his companions were wounded in an exchange of fire that continued until Israeli re-enforcements arrived. At that point, the terrorists fled back into Jordan.
Jordanians across the demarcation line facing the Beisan Valley lobbed mortar shells into Maoz Chaim last night after an earlier shelling of Kfar Ruppin. No casualties were reported but some IL 6,000 (about $1,800) in damage was done to the settlement and livestock. A pet pony belonging to the kindergarten was killed, to the sorrow of the youngsters. They were promised a new pony today by military plant workers.
The shellings of Kfar Ruppin and Maoz Chaim marked a renewal of Jordanian assaults on Israeli villages inhabited by women and children. Those assaults reached a peak last Feb. 15 when Jordanian guns shelled eight settlements all along the Jordan Valley. They were silenced the next day by a fierce Israeli artillery and air force attack that knocked out the Jordanian gun emplacements.
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