Egyptians Continue Sniping at Canal; Israelis Say Algerians Hit During Battles

Egyptian sniping, which wounded an Israeli soldier Friday, continued along the Suez Canal today but there was no escalation of fighting despite Cairo radio boasts that Egypt would not permit Israel to continue fortifying its positions along the waterway’s east bank. Israeli officials said that it appeared that a number of Algerian officers and men were hit during the artillery clashes along a section of the Suez Canal during the week. Algerian units have been deployed along a section of the canal as part of the Egyptian force. The Algerian troops reportedly have no artillery and are supported by Egyptian guns and other artillery positioned in their camps. Israel has complained to the United Nations about the participation of Algerians in “skirmishes.”

In another military activity, six mortar shells were fired last night at Baram settlement near the Lebanese border. They exploded in an orange grove where damage was reported negligible. Shells were fired at Ashdod Yaacov in the Beisan Valley last night but caused no casualties or damage.

(A British and an American authority on the Middle East agreed on a New York television panel last week that the Suez Canal, which marks its 100th birthday this year, has no more than 10-15 years of profitable use ahead, even if it is reopened in the near future. The discussants were Lord Kinross, author of “Between Two Seas,” a newly published history of the building of the Suez Canal and its early years, and Prof. J.C. Hurewitz, professor of government at Columbia University and author of a new book on the military aspects of the Middle East conflict. They agreed that the construction of supertankers, prompted by the canal’s long shutdown after the 1956 Arab-Israeli war, had rendered the 100-mile waterway obsolete for the transportation of oil which constitutes more than two thirds of the cargoes passing through it. In addition, they predicted that the increased use of large vessels carrying dry cargo in containers would further deprive the canal of much of its volume. They noted that containerized cargo could be speedily transferred by rail or highway between ships at either end of the canal.)