Golan Heights sealed off

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 9

Golan Heights sealed off

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright! TEL AVIV, November 2. Israel has closed off the occupied Golan Heights because of what a military source in Tel Aviv says is a possible new round of fighting with Syria.

Syrian artillery shelled a 12-mile stretch of the area on Monday, wounding an Israeli soldier. The shelling occurred between two Israeli air strikes into Syria in the heaviest day of fighting there since the Middle East ceasefire went into effect nearly 27 months ago. In the Gaza Strip, an Arab was killed and three Israelis were wounded last night when Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian guerrillas.

Government sources in Cairo have announced — a day after Israel recalled her Ambassador in Bonn because of West Germany’s release, last Sunday, of three Arab prisoners to guerrilla aircraft hijackers — that the West German Ambassador (Mr Hans-Georg Steltzer) will present his credentials to the Egyptian Government on SatWest German Embassy officials in Cairo, however,

I have cautioned journalists against linking this with the hijacking incident. They insist that Bonn’s decision to free the three Arab guerrillas was taken not to please anyone, but to save the lives of the passengers and crew of the hijacked jetliner. It is reported from London by Reuter that the Egyptian Embassy there says that one of its attaches has received what appeared to be a letterbomb, but police sources say that the envelope contained only a matchstick and an elastic band, arranged so as to make a loud snapping noise when the envelope, purportedly from a British bank, was opened.