Israeli forces and terrorist gangs traded blows on the northern frontier late last night and early this morning. Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided Majdal el-Zun village in southern Lebanon, destroyed six buildings used as terrorist refuges and took two prisoners back to Israel for questioning. There was a brief exchange of fire in the village but no Israeli casualties were reported during the operation.
Shortly after the raid into Lebanon, terrorist infiltrators lobbed hand grenades and fired bazooka rockets into the guest house at Kibbutz Hanita in Western Galilee. The building was empty and no casualties were reported. Israeli forces are combing the area for the terrorists.
The commando raid on Majdal, el-Zun was described as a preventive action against terrorist infiltration. The village has been a jumping-off point for terrorist assaults on Israel. The six buildings demolished by Israeli forces were used as resting places for the terrorists and their occupants were terrorist collaborators. Two of them, one aged 23 and the other 45, were taken back to Israel.
The attack on Hanita occurred shortly before dawn. Israeli security circles assumed at first that the rockets were fired from behind the Lebanese border but later investigation indicated that terrorists had broken through the security fence and approached the kibbutz perimeter only a few yards from the border.
Hanita is one of the pioneer kibbutzim in Western Galilee. Founded in 1936, it gained fame in later years as the home of former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and of Israel’s present Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Yigal Allon. Both men were members of Haganah in their youth and stood guard while Hanita, originally a tower-and-stockade settlement, was built overnight during the period of Arab uprisings in Palestine. (By Yitzhak Shargil.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
