ISRAEL-SYRIA CLASH

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28629, 4 July 1958, Page 9

ISRAEL-SYRIA CLASH

Reported Use Of Artillery (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.40 p.m.) TEL AVIV, July 3. United Nations military observers are today investigating Israel’s complaint that Syrian artillery shelled the Israel border village of Daradara in the Lake Huleh area yesterday. An Israel Army communique last night said that two policemen were wounded, two police armoured cars damaged, and three huts set on fire during the shelling, which lasted until dusk. In Damascus a Syrian Army spokesman said that Israelis opened fire on a Syrian checkpost at Tel Hilal. The Syrians returned the fire, inflicting heavy losses.

Earlier messages said that the firing broke out between Syrians and Israelis on the eastern bank of Lake Huleh, according to a United Nations spokesman in Jerusalem.

The spokesman said that local United Nations observers had arranged for a truce to take effect from 4.45 p.m. local time but that reports from the area said firing was still going on after the deadline. The clash was the first on the Israeli-Syrian border since the outbreak of the fighting in neighbouring Lebanon several weeks ago.

An Israeli spokesman had claimed that the Syrians opened fire with mortars and automatic weapons on Israeli labourers working on land reclamation.

Israeli police reinforcements later exchanged fire with the Syrians in an attempt to extricate labourers pinned down by Syrian snipers. The spokesman said that an hour after the fighting began no casualties had been reported, although property had been damaged. Israeli labourers are building a road eight miles long which skirts the waterline of Lake Huleh and runs only a few hundred yards west of the Syrian line.