Two Israeli soldiers were wounded, a wooden cottage used by United Nations truce observers has hit and a UN car was set afire in a fierce artillery and tank duel which raged over the Syrian front throughout the day and subsided in the evening. The escalation of warfare on the Syrian front, now in its third week, was acknowledged by Damascus yesterday to be deliberate Syrian policy to extract major concessions from Israel before disengagement talks begin.
President Hafez Assad was quoted as saying the shooting would continue until Israel with draws from all Syrian territory, meaning the Golan Heights captured in the 1967 Six-Day War as well as the enclave of Syrian territory Israel captured in the Yom Kippur War last Oct. An unconfirmed report today said that Israel was prepared to pull its forces back 10 miles within the Yom Kippur War enclave in the framework of a disengagement accord with Syria.
In the battle of attrition on the Syrian front, Israeli forces are apparently exercising restraint in an effort to prevent escalation. The Syrians opened fire today at 7:30 a.m., an hour earlier than in the past few days. Israeli forces did not return their fire immediately. They responded only after the Syrian shelling intensified and was extended from the southern to the northern section of the Israeli-held enclave. Syrian shells fell on Israeli positions at Tel Arnaba, Tel Shams and Tel Antar. The Syrians fired artillery, tank cannon, “Sager” anti-tank missiles and volleys of Katyusha rockets. The missiles and rockets caused no damage.
UN observers tried to arrange a cease-fire for 10 a.m. but the Syrians continued shooting for another half-hour. The shooting stopped at 10:30 but resumed 90 minutes later, stopped again, and was resumed early in the afternoon. Golan Heights settlers spent most of the day in bomb shelters,
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.
