One Arab Killed, Three Men Including an Israeli Wounded in New Clash

A three-pronged clash on the Gaza Strip frontier last night, involving Israeli border patrolmen, a unit of the United Nations Emergency Force, and a group of Egyptian infiltrators, has resulted in the death of one Arab and the wounding of three other men. The three injured are an Israeli soldier, another belonging to UNEF, and one of the Arab infiltrators.

Reports on the clash, varying on some of the details, were issued today by Israel’s military spokesman and by UNEF headquarters at Gaza.

According to Israel’s military spokesman, Arab ambushers opened fire on the Israeli patrol last night, a couple of miles inside Israel’s frontier, near the Tel Reim settlement, east of Gaza. In the resulting exchange of fire, one Israeli border patrolman was wounded, but not seriously.

A short time later, the Israelis saw some suspicious movements along the border. When the Israelis challenged the group and received no reply, the Israelis opened fire. Soon afterward, a UNEF officer told the Israelis one of his men had been wounded, and asked for medical aid. The Israelis took the wounded UNEF soldier to an Israeli hospital.

UNEF sources reported that the Israelis had actually “encountered” the UNEF group, which had presumably crossed the Israel frontier by mistake.

Meanwhile, UNEF headquarters reported that one of its units encountered a group of Arabs inside Gaza territory, coming from the Israel border. When the Arabs opened fire on the UNEF unit, the United Nations soldiers retaliated, killing one Arab and wounding another. UNEF headquarters said also that one of the UN soldiers was slightly wounded when a UNEF patrol “was shot at by an Israeli patrol.”

The Egyptian attempt to infiltrate into Israel last night was the second in two nights, the third in a week. Two nights ago, Israelis killed two Arab infiltrators in an exchange of fire inside Israel’s border.