The Chief of Staff of Israel’s armed forces said today that Israel could maintain its occupation of captured Arab territories indefinitely if necessary with relatively little strain on the country’s economy and manpower resources. Maj. Gen. Chaim Bar-Lev, addressing a press luncheon here, said the occupation would continue as long as the Arabs refused to come to the peace table. He said strikes by students and teachers in the occupied territories could not be considered a serious problem and that Israel could easily cope with them as well as with Arab terrorism. While it is not possible to eliminate guerrilla activities entirely, they can and are being held to an absolute minimum, Gen. Bar-Lev said.
An Israeli operating a scraping machine was slightly injured today by a bazooka shell fired from Jordanian territory at a field near Neve Urr in the Beisan Valley. Israeli forces returned the fire. A military court in Gaza sentenced six Arabs to jail terms of from four to 12 years for transporting anti-vehicle mines. The accused, members of El Fatah, were captured in a clash with Israeli troops.
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.
