Several shells were fired from Syrian lines at Nahal Golan in the southern Golan Heights last night as tension continued high on both sides of the Israel-Syria cease-fire line. No casualties or damage was reported from the shelling nor did Israeli forces return the fire. But Arab villagers on the Syrian side of the line were reportedly fleeing the area in fear of Israeli retaliation for yesterday’s Syrian air raid on Neot Hagolan and Houshaniyeh, Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights.
There were no casualties from the air raids and damage was limited to a barn at Neot Hagolan which caught fire and burned for several hours. The Syrian planes attacked while a Purim party was going on at Neot Hagolan. The civilian population of the village ran to bomb shelters. They were back at work in the fields this morning but precautionary measures were being taken. Israeli circles view the Syrian attack as a grave development, not for the damage it caused, which was minimal, but because it indicated a new tactic by the Syrians presumably taken in coordination with Egypt.
Damascus claimed the air raid was in retaliation for Israeli artillery attacks and air strikes early yesterday on terrorist bases inside Syria. The terrorists had been shelling Israeli military and civilian positions in the Golan Heights for the last three days. The Israeli circles pointed out that their countermeasures were aimed at terrorist strongholds and carefully avoided hitting Syrian Army positions but the Syrians, they said, are apparently not interested in reducing tension along the border.
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