Security Council

At its 700th meeting on September 8, 1955, the Council considered a report of the Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine, General E. L. M. Burns, on an outbreak of violence in the Gaza area which had begun with an incident on August 22 in which an Egyptian post near the demarcation line was occupied by Israel forces; according to General Burns, this incident, in which one Egyptian officer and two soldiers had been killed and three others wounded, had started a chain of violence. While it was not possible to affix responsibility for the episode of August 22, he stated, it had been followed by an organized series of attacks on vehicles, installations and persons, carried out by gangs of marauders in Israel territory and resulting in the deaths of eleven military and civilian personnel and the injury of nine. The number and nature of these attacks, in the view of General Burns, suggested that they were the work of organized and well trained groups, and he stated that investigations by the United Nations military observers tended to support this view. There had also been numerous incidents of firing across the demarcation line, accompanied in some instances by incursions of small parties of troops of either side, and sometimes resulting in heavy casualties. In view of the deterioration in the situation, General Burns reported, he had requested on August 26 that responsible Israel authorities in the area be instructed to act with restraint, and had informed the Egyptians that in his view it would be advisable to post United Nations military observers on the Egyptian side in accordance with arrangements previously in force, but subsequently discontinued.