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Township Near Lebanese Border Twice Attacked by Katyusha Rockets

August 4, 1969
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Kiryat Shemona, a new immigrant township near the Lebanese border. experienced its second Katyusha rocket attack in 48 hours today. The first attack occurred Friday, slightly injuring an 18 year-old girl. Eight housing units were damaged, four of them severely. The second attack caused no casualties but damaged the town’s water system. The damage done by Friday’s assault was inspected by Premier Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who visited Kiryat Shemona Friday accompanied by Israel’s Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Chaim Bar Lev and Gen. David Elazar, commanding officer of Israel’s Northern Command. Mrs. Meir hailed the new settlers for the fortitude they displayed under attack. “We will all need faith and strong nerves until the good days come,” she said. The Premier and her group also visited several newly established settlements in the Golan Heights which they reached by helicopter. Mrs. Meir spoke to the settlers and disclosed that two new settlements would be established shortly in the occupied Syrian territory.

Two Arab saboteurs were killed in an encounter with an Israeli patrol in the Jordan Valley over the week-end as a massive search continued in the Gaza Strip and deep into Sinai for the murderer of an Israeli Public Works Department foreman near Gaza Thursday and the saboteurs who seriously injured an Israeli truck driver in Gaza yesterday. An Israeli border policeman was injured today when his patrol was attacked by bazooka and small arms fire east of Ashdod Yaacov in the Beisan Valley. Another border policeman was injured in a clash in the same region Friday and a saboteur was killed there the previous day.

The murdered foreman was Shimon Levi, 41, of Beersheba, who was in charge of a crew building a road to a Gaza refugee camp. He was found dead with at least 15 bullets fired into him at point blank range. His Arab driver and several Arab workers were detained for questioning. The truck driver, a 22 year-old man from Holon, was injured when a time bomb went off in the cab of his truck. One of his legs had to be amputated.

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