The Israel Cabinet spent the major portion of yesterday’s meeting discussing the decision to first test Egypt’s blockade of the Suez Canal by sending goods to and from Israel through the waterway in foreign bottoms, it was learned here today.
It is known that the United States Government has been urging Israel to follow such a course of “progressive blockade testing” and that top United Nations circles hold similar views. It is believed that cargoes will be shipped in ships of Western nations.
Meanwhile, it was learned today that Israeli naval units have conducted intensive maneuvers off Greek waters. Other naval units engaged in exercises off the Israeli shore. A military spokesman referred to the naval games as routine, annual exercises.
(In London, the Daily Mail reported today that a small Israeli freighter has become the first vessel flying the Israeli flag to pass through the Gulf of Akaba since the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. The report said that the vessel, believed to be the 1,554-ton Atilt, had docked at Elath, Israel’s port at the head of the Gulf. The newspaper said the ship sailed up the Red Sea from the French Somaliland port of Djibouti.)
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