Two Israeli soldiers and seven Lebanese soldiers were killed yesterday when an Israeli search mission aimed against terrorist concentrations in southern Lebanon escalated into a series of sharp fire-fights with terrorists and Lebanese regulars, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mordechai Gur said on a television interview last night that such operations would continue but expressed regret that Lebanese soldiers were involved.
Israel Air Force jets and two Israeli rescue teams, one of them in armoured half-tracks, and the intervention of United Nations truce observers were required to extricate the original Israeli raiding party that was pinned down on a hill just inside the Lebanese border. It was the first time in six months that the Israeli Air Force was called to action over Lebanon.
ISRAELI DEAD IDENTIFIED
The Israeli dead were identified today as Lt. Moshe Whartman, 22 of Jerusalem, leader of the original terrorist-hunting patrol, and Cpl. Natan Schoenberg, 20, of Tel Aviv, Lt, Whartman was the oldest son of Eliezer Whartman, the well-known columnist whose articles appear regularly in many American-Jewish weeklies.
The fighting took place in and around Eit A Shaab village, a suspected terrorist base about five kilometers east of the Israeli village of Zarit. The Cabinet, meeting in its regular weekly session Sunday, was continuously brief on developments. The action ended at about 2 p.m. local time yesterday, with the evacuation of all Israeli forces from Lebanon.
It had begun late Saturday night as part of an ongoing, almost routine operation against growing terrorist concentrations in southern Lebanon. The Israeli search unit crossed the border after a night of fire exchanges with terrorists based inside Lebanon.
Gur said that the army had received information of possible terrorist incursions against Israel by land and sea from Lebanon and its mission was to prevent such attacks. He said Israel’s policy was to strike only at the terrorists and not to engage Lebanese regular forces, but Lebanese soldiers were mingled with the terrorists and some were in civilian dress, “Therefore, the Israeli force acted properly when it attacked,” Gur said.
BACKGROUND OF ISRAELI FORAY
The action took place against the background
Gur said, however, that the internal tensions in Lebanon did not prevent the terrorists from planning and carrying out assaults against Israel from Lebanese territory. He said the Lebanese were not always capable of restraining the terrorists but, on the other hand, sometimes did not even do what they were capable of, “thereby forcing Israel to take preventive measures.”
RAN INTO UNEXPECTED RESISTANCE
Unlike previous operations of its kind, the Israelis ran into unexpected resistance Saturday night and early Sunday. The unit was attacked at close range by terrorists outside of Eit A Shaab and came under fire from inside the village when it attempted to withdraw toward the Israeli border.
Israeli soldiers attacked a house in Eit A Shaab with small arms and grenades, killing seven Lebanese soldiers who had been firing at them. The clash delayed the withdrawal until dawn and the commander of the unit decided to take cover on a hill rather than attempt to return to Israeli territory in daylight, a military spokesman explained yesterday.
But the unit lost radio contact with field headquarters in Israel. A rescue team sent across the border was unable to locate the original patrol and came under small arms fire from a Lebanese army post, A second rescue squad was dispatched in armored half-tracks. UN truce observers were informed of the nature of the rescue mission and one UN officer accompanied the Israelis into Eit a Shaab to explain to the Lebanese that it was a rescue mission, not an attack.
The Lebanese army did not interfere, but the unit came under attack by mortar and machinegun fire at which point the Air Force was called in to silence the sources of fire, the military spokesman said. The original Israeli unit was located at noon and by early afternoon Sunday all Israeli units had returned to their bases.
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.
