Armed Sentries At Eshkol’s Funeral

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31926, 1 March 1969, Page 13

Armed Sentries At Eshkol’s Funeral

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) JERUSALEM, February 28. As the late Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Levi Eshkol, was buried today alongside other great leaders of the nation, heavily-armed troops kept a sharp look-out for Arab guerrillas among the vast crowds of mourners.

By midnight, last night, an estimated 250,000 people had filed past the simple wooden coffin lying in state in Parliament Square, Jerusalem.

After the funeral service outside the Knesset (Parliament) Building, the cortege set out for nearby Mount Herzl, where Mr Eshkol, who died after a heart attack two days ago. at the age of 73, was buried near the tombs of Dr Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, and Israel’s second President, Mr Isaac Ben-Sri.

Frontier police, on special alert to spot terrorists. checked incoming bulky cases yesterday as the mourners in Jerusalem moved silently past Mr Eshkol’s coffin, which had been draped in a prayer shawl and the blue-and-white national flag. I j Sentries were posted I on rooftops and on the i hills surrounding Jeru- | salem. Shooting broke out again today between Arab and Israeli forces along the Suez Canal, and Jordanian artillery shelled Israelis on the Syrian cease-fire line. The 90-minute artillery duel began when the Jordanians j attempted to cover the withdrawal of a band of Arab

(guerrillas fighting Israeli ’troops in the southern sector ■of the Golan Heights, accordling to an Israeli military ! spokesman. Two members of the guerIrilla band were shot dead, but I there were no Israeli casualIties. I Jordanian forces, however, claimed to have killed 13 Israeli soldiers without loss [to themselves. Court Martial An Israeli officer will face a court martial on charges connected with an incident last month, when Israeli troops fired on women de- j monstrators, killing one and,’ wounding nine others. An official announcement ini l Tel Aviv says a commission! 1 of inquiry found that an!' Israeli captain contravened [ i standing orders by firing is without reasonable justifica-! tion at the women in the town :i of Rafah, in the Israeli-occu- i pied Gaza Strip. ji The incident occurred on'| January 20 as the women were demonstrating outside I the military governor’s offices i during a curfew. i The officer will also be

i [charged with permitting his | men to shoot in the same cir- : cumstances. In Cairo it was reported to- ■ day that Mr Mahmoud Fawzi, t a leading Egyptian foreign- . policy adviser, would confer on the Middle East situation ■ with the United States AmI bassador (Mr Henry Cabot | Lodge) in Paris next week. The semi-official Cairo newspaper, “Al Ahram,” said Mr Fawzi, who would be presenting Egypt’s case to President Charles de Gaulle of France and other European leaders, would presumably tell Mr Lodge Egypt’s objections to Washington’s cautious approach to intervention by the four Great Powers.