Israel today shot down two Syrian jet fighters and blew up some fortifications well inside Syrian territory after Syria started a miniature war by shelling Israeli Coast Guard vessels accompanying fishing boats on Lake Tiberias, a body of water entirely within Israeli jurisdiction.
In the exchange of firing, which lasted from about 5 o’clock this morning until Syria accepted a United Nations cease-fire proposal at 1:30 p.m., Israel suffered five wounded, none of them, however, was very seriously injured. (A radio broadcast from Damascus, capital of Syria, claimed that three Israeli gunboats were destroyed and eight others set afire on Lake Tiberias. Israeli army spokesmen shrugged off that report as a fabrication.)
The action started at about 5 a.m. when a flotilla of Israeli fishing boats started operating on Lake Tiberias under the protection of Coast Guard cutters and speedboats. Syrian gun posts located at Massaoudyie started shelling one of the Coast Guard vessels which had become stuck on some reefs in the lake, not far from the shore nearest Syria. The Syrians used recoilless Loretta guns placed in their fortified positions, and soon wounded two Israelis.
Israel sent speedboats to take the wounded off the stranded vessel, and immediately asked the United Nations military observers in the area to order a cease-fire so that the wounded could be evacuated. By 6 a.m., while the rescue operations were still under way, and after a total of five Israelis had been wounded by the shelling, Syria sent four MIGs into the air to harass the ships and the rescuers. Israel then replied by sending its own air force up to repel the Syrian jets.
The first hit on a Syrian airplane, a MIG-17, was scored by anti-aircraft guns aboard the stranded Israeli Coast Guard cutter. The craft was seen falling into Lake Tiberias, and the pilot could not be seen swimming away from his downed ship. Israel started immediate operations to try to rescue the pilot, but he was believed drowned.
A second of the Syrian planes, a MIG-21, was chased by an Israeli jet fighter well into Syrian territory. The Israeli reported that he sent the MIG-21 plunging downward at a point about 25 miles inside Syria. The two remaining Syrian aircraft disappeared in the direction of their Syrian bases.
ISRAELI PLANES SILENCE SYRIAN BATTERIES WITHIN 10 MINUTES
Meanwhile, Gen. Itzhak Rabin, chief of staff of Israel’s fighting forces, ordered the Israeli planes to pursue the search for the Syrian attackers as far as the fortified position at or near Massaoudyie. The Israeli planes fired at the Syrian posts, silencing the Syrian batteries.
The air operation to silence the gun posts inside Syria took about 10 minutes. Israel pointed out that the posts were forts, far from any civilian dwellings. The United Nations Syrian-Israeli Mixed Armistice Commission received Israel’s full acceptance of a cease-fire offer by 10:30 a.m. But it was not until three hours later that Syria agreed to halt all firing.
Israel considered today’s aggression as the most serious in the explosive Syrian border area in many years. Gen. Rabin held a press conference at Tel Aviv within a few hours after the complete cease-fire went into effect, and told the press that he had ordered the Israeli Air Force to fight back against the Syrian aggressions, and to follow through by attacking its “sanctuary” inside Syrian territory. “Israel’s air strike was necessary, ” he said, “to save personnel aboard the vessels, which had been shelled by Syrian batteries. “
Israelis were particularly resentful because the sea was calm and the atmosphere clear when the Syrians started their attacks. Later, when rescue operations were under way, the Israelis said, the Syrians deliberately fired upon small ships obviously being used for rescue only or by Israeli newspapermen who had come up from Tel Aviv to report the operations. In pursuing rescuers, it was charged, the Syrians used machine guns and rockets.
Both Israel and Syria filed complaints with the U.N. Mixed Armistice Commission, each accusing the other side of aggression.
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