A rapid deterioration of the situation along the Jordan-Israel border was seen here today in the wake of new frontier incidents. Israeli military circles pointed out the pressure on Israel seemed to be swinging from Israel’s eastern border to the west, where both Syria and Jordan have contributed to a continuing series of incidents in recent days.
The most serious incursion today occurred when a band of eight or nine armed Jordanians crossed the border in broad daylight and penetrated one eighth of a mile into Israel to attack an Israeli border patrol. In a short, vicious exchange of fire, the Israelis drove the gang back across the border. Although the gang used automatic weapons and rifles, no Israelis were hurt.
However, during the battle and the subsequent retreat, Jordanian police were seen watching the battle from their police station at Lassifar, south of Mt. Hebron. The fact that the police were either unable or uninterested in preventing the infiltration or in arresting the raiders afterwards was seen here as in important aftermath of political upheaval in Jordan, and a sign of possible future trouble from that source.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli tractor driver was wounded when his vehicle was blasted by a landmine. The incident occurred near Nir David, in the Beisan Vally, in the same area where three infiltrators from Jordan ambushed and murdered two Israeli settlement watchmen Monday night. It is believed that the same gang set the mine trap on the same night.
EXCHANGE OF FIRE ON ISRAEL-SYRIAN BORDER
Another exchange of fire occurred on the Syrian border today north of Lake Huleh when Syrian gunposts caught an Israeli patrol, on Israel soil, in a crossfire. Col. J, Leary, Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, called on both sides to cease fire.
A military spokesman said that Israeli reinforcements were rushed to the scene of the fighting in order to extricate the patrol which was pinned down by heavy firing from several intersecting machine gun nests. By the time the UN request for a cease-fire came through, the spokesman said, the patrol had been pulled back in safety under an umbrella of concentrated fire which quieted the Syrians, and Israel immediately complied.
Syrian gun posts opposite Kfar Szold in Upper Galilee opened fire yesterday on the settlement and kept it up for an hour and a half. The Israelis replied. No casualties were suffered on the Israeli side. Today, two Israeli Arabs, one a woman shepherd and the other a man, were kidnapped and dragged across the border into Lebanon. The abductions were carried out by two separate armed gangs.
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