Five hundred acres of grazing land near Kfar Hanassi, in northern Israel, adjacent to the Syrian border, were set ablaze yesterday when Syrian anti-aircraft guns fired at Israeli planes which were on training flights inside Israel’s own air space. Syrian shells fell into the dry pasture land, starting a conflagration which could not be brought under control until early today.
The Syrian shooting had been directed against two Israeli planes, which were undamaged. The firing took place just 24 hours after 14 teams of inspectors, composed of United Nations military observers, with accompanying Israeli officers on this side of the border and by Syrian officers on the other side, completed a survey of the entire Israeli-Syrian border to check Syrian charges that Israel had massed troops along the frontier.
Maj. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, who had assigned members of his staff for the survey, sent his report to United Nations Secretary-General U Thant. While Gen. Bull has declined to make the report public, leaving its issuance up to Mr. Thant, Israeli circles said the survey had disproved the Syrian charges about the massing of troops by Israel.
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