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Tel Aviv–beersheba Rail Line Sabotaged by Egyptian Infiltrators

September 11, 1956
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A section of the Tel Aviv–Beersheba rail line was sabotaged today at a point 12 miles north of Beersheba Although the distance from Egypt at that point was nearly 19 miles and to Jordan only ten, an Israeli spokesman charged that Egyptian fedayeen (suicide squads) were responsible.

The spokesman said that this had all the earmarks of a fedayeen raid in which infiltrators take off from Gaza territory, commit their outrage and then go on to Jordan as the closest safe haven. An unofficial report had it that the saboteurs narrowly missed blowing up a freight train.

Three Israeli soldiers were wounded today when Jordanian forces opened fire on an Israeli patrol inside Israel near the village of Duweima, north of Beersheba During the clash, the Jordanians used rifles, machine guns and mortars. The fire became so heavy that the Israelis were forced to retreat with only one of their wounded recovered. United Nations observers are investigating, the incident.

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