An 18-year-old Israeli youth, Yehouda Simontov was wounded today in Jerusalem in the second of two shooting incidents on Israel’s borders. Simontov, who was hit when Jordanian soldiers opened fire from their positions in old Jerusalem, was taken to Hadassah Hospital where his condition was reported as not dangerous. No reason was reported for the Jordanian shooting.
In the first of the day’s incidents, Syrian gunners opened fire at noon on Israeli tractors working in fields north of the Tel Katzir settlement. The site was the scene of a similar attack last Friday which flared into a sharp ground and air battle during which Israeli jets shot down six Syrian Soviet-made MIG-21 jet planes.
The Army spokesman said that the Syrian mortar fire at the tractors ceased only when Israel brought up “additional preventive” means. He added that the “means,” which were not specified, were not used.
The Israeli communique on the tractor attack said that the Syrians aimed heavy fire from Hirbet Tawafik on the fields southeast of Lake Tiberias, Some 30 120-millimeter shells hit the target area but there were no casualties and the tractors did not halt their ploughing during the attack.
The fields are cultivated routinely by Israelis and tractors worked the area yesterday and early today without interference. Israeli officials said the target fields were not considered “disputed” but are recognized as Israeli.
SYRIAN AND EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL START SECRET TALKS ON ISRAEL
The Damascus Radio reported today that Syrian and Egyptian officials started secret high-level military talks in Syria on joint strategy against Israel. A Damascus radio broadcast today also admitted officially, for the first time, that the Syrians had opened fire on Israeli tractors.
There was an increased tendency in Israel Government circles today to revert to the border situation existing prior to the convening, last January 25, when the Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission met, at the summons of United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, The session had been called to discuss the issue of land cultivation and cultivation rights in the demilitarized zones on the Israeli-Syrian frontiers.
In an effort to show good will to the U.N. chief’s efforts to pacify the Syrian and Israeli borders, Israel halted cultivation in some areas under dispute. Now, under pressure from Israel’s border settlements, and with growing doubts that Syria has any intentions of renewing the ISMAC talks — suspended since February 2 — the trend is toward renewing of farm work in all of the available lands on the border and in the demilitarized zones. Israel had been cultivating those lands for years until the voluntary halt in January.
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