Egyptian positions on the west bank of the Suez Canal opened machine gun fire today on an Israeli mobile patrol on the east bank. The Israelis returned the fire. There were no Israeli casualties in the brief exchange.
Israeli sources said today that direct hits were scored in yesterday’s artillery duel on an Egyptian artillery position and that a direct hit was scored on an Egyptian tank which was seen to burst into flame.
Egyptian artillery shells hit cars belonging to United Nations cease-fire observers, damaged the house in East Kantara used as their headquarters and also a Coptic church and a mosque. Israelis denied an Egyptian claim that they had shot down an Israeli Mirage jet fighter.
(Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, head of the Secretary-General’s cease-fire observance team along the Suez Canal, cabled U.N. headquarters today placing responsibility for Tuesday’s cease-fire violation on the Egyptian forces. He accused the Egyptians of “initiating fire at two Israeli Mirage fighter aircraft flying north to south along the east bank of the Suez Canal.” He noted that the firing subsequently “escalated.”)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
