Middle East 685
11/11/63: Israeli Army reported shooting across the Syrian-Israeli border, in
which two Israelis were wounded;
2/10/64: An Israeli plane was fired upon by Syrian forces but was not hit.
According to Israeli sources, the plane was flying over Israeli territory;
4/17–19/64: Six seamen aboard Lebanese vessels were seized by Israeli forces,
two were Egyptian and four were Syrian. Israel had been asking both countries for
the return of 20 of its citizens, and the capture of the seamen was supposed to add
to Israel’s bargaining power;
11/3/64: Fighting broke out along the Israeli-Syrian border. In one clash, five
Israeli soldiers and seven Syrian soldiers were killed;
11/13/64: Israeli and Syrian forces engaged in a two-hour battle that resulted
in casualties. It began when Israeli jet fighters attacked Syrian positions along the
northeastern frontier;
5/14/65: Israeli and Syrian forces exchanged heavy gunfire for 45 minutes in the
Jordan Valley after Syrian positions had opened fire at a motorized Israeli patrol.
The patrol reciprocated, and Israeli tanks joined;
9/11/65: At a conference of the Arab League states Syria called for the creation
of a joint Arab liberation army to crush Israel. During this time there was rising
tension over water rights and the diversion of the Jordan River. Israel had proposed
to pump water from the Sea of Galilee into the Jordan to irrigate the Nagev desert;
12/2/65: Syrian posts opened fire on Israeli soldiers that were guarding a tractor
in northeast Israel;
12/16/65: Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon approved a plan to divert the water
of the Jordan River before it reached Israel;
2/13/66: Israeli and Syrian forces clashed for an hour and a half along the border
in the Huleh Valley demilitarized zone. Both sides said the other had started the
fighting, and their forces had just returned fire. Israel stated that the Israelis had
been given the right to cultivate in that area, and Syrian forces shelled the Israeli
tractors. Syria said that the tractors entered a prohibited area and were escorted by
tanks, artillery, and automatic weapons which began firing at Syrian positions and
villages. There were injuries on both sides, but no report of casualties;
7/14/66: There was an attack by Israeli air force planes on engineering works on
the headwaters of the Jordan River;
7/24/66: Syria warned that if Israel continued to raid Syrian territory, citing the
bombing of operations to divert the Jordan River to Syria, then it would “definitely
lead to war”;
8/3/66: The UN Security Council refused to condemn Israel for aggression
against Syria. While nine abstained from voting, all members deplored the July 14
attack by Israeli air force planes on engineering works on the headwaters of the
Jordan River. They stated that the reason for not voting was that the resolution was
one-sided and did not take into consideration the infiltration of Syrian saboteurs
into Israel;
11/27/66: The Soviet Union vetoed the UN resolution to blame Syria for the
terrorist attacks on Israel. Earlier in the week Israel was censured for its reprisal
attack on Jordan. Israel blamed Syria for all of the terrorist attacks and incursions
into Israel. While some of the attacks came from Jordan, Israel stated that they
were “agents of the Syrian government.”