The situation along Israel’s frontiers deteriorated into violence today as Arab troops along three borders opened fire on Israeli workers and soldiers. Miraculously, there were no Israeli casualties.
In addition, two teams of United Nations observers sent to investigate an early morning shooting fray in the Jerusalem area, were fired on by Jordanian troops. One observer, Lt. Col. M. Thalin of Sweden, was wounded and an aide suffered severe shock.
UN truc chief Maj. Gen. E. L. M. Burns is scheduled to hold an urgent discussion of the situation tomorrow with Jordanian Army commander Gen. Ali Abu Nuwar. He expressed “astonishment and deep concern” over the attack on Col. Thalin’s party.
The most important engagement occurred in the vicinity of Mevasseret Yerushalayim, about ten miles west of here, where an Israeli patrol was caught in the open by Jordanian gunfire. Israeli forces rushed to extricate the patrol, brought into play small arms, automatic weapons and mortars. UN sources called the situation tense.
It was in this area that the UN teams were fired upon. Col. Thalin and his party were shot at in an Arab village as they sped to the area from behind the Jordan positions. A UN team on duty with the Israelis was also converted into a target by Arab marksmen and its jeep was put out of action. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have informed UN truce headquarters that they would not permit the investigation to continue unless they received definite assurances from the Jordanians that the attacks would not recur.
ISRAEL CHARGES ARAB VIOLENCE IS “REPLY” TO HAMMARSKJOLD PEACE EFFORTS
An Israeli spokesman charged tonight that the continuous spate of acts of aggression are a “telling and provocative reply” to the latest attempts by UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold to prevent the collapse of the cease-fire. The Israeli revealed that in the Gaza area Egyptians twice attacked Israeli patrols while Syrians fired on workers in the region south of Lake Tiberias.
The two Canadian truce observers who stepped on a mine on Mt. Scopus yesterday were out of danger today, according to Hadassah Hospital authorities. One of the officers, Maj. George Flint, was on the operating table three hours yesterday and required several blood transfusions.
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. E. L. M. Burns, UN truce chief, in a communique commenting on the Jordanian invasion of a building on Mt. Scopus, which preceded the mine accident, warned both Israel and Jordan against any military coup on the height, “The Chief of Staff wishes to recall to the Israel and Jordan authorities that neither of them should attempt to assert a right or an alleged right on Mt. Scopus by military action,” the communique said. “It is his firm intention to maintain in the demilitarized zone the authority vested in the United Nations by the 7 July 1948 agreement.”
The communique also discussed whether the house occupied by Jordanian troops yesterday was inside the Mt. Scopus demilitarized zone, policed by Israel. It noted that in an early map of the area, accepted by both Israel and Jordan, the house lies inside the demilitarized zone, but that a later map shows the house outside the zone. Israel, however, never signed the second map and refuses to accept its validity, the UN communique stressed.
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