Firing Across Canal Goes On

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31412, 4 July 1967, Page 15

Firing Across Canal Goes On

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

TEL AVIV, July 3.

Brief mortar duels across the Suez Canal were reported today, the third successive day of renewed skirmishes in the area.

An Israeli military spokesman said Egyptian mortar shelling was resumed at 530 a.m. local time from the western bank towards an Israeli force north of Kantara in Sinai.

He said the lobbing of mortars accompanied by automatic fire lasted for 20 minutes.

Two hours later, the spokesman said, mortar batteries resumed the shelling in the same place but “it was silenced after a few minutes.”

Clashes in the canal zone began on Saturday and continued during the night Israeli sources said a small Egyptian force had tried to establish itself on the eastern bank and was driven off.

The fighting flared again yesterday afternoon with an Egyptian mortar barrage. An Israeli announcement said the Egyptians—in an area north of Kantara—were silenced. The major clash on Satur-

day—described as a five-hour battle—began after about 100 Egyptian troops were ferried across the canal in darkness, according to an Israeli army spokesman.

Israel rejects Cairo claims that its forces had been stationed around Port Fuad, on the east bank near Port Said, since the Middle East war cease-fire.