Israeli artillery engaged in fierce duels with socket-firing Palestinian terrorists across the Lebanese border today in a continuation of fighting that began with a large scale Israeli armor and infantry attack on terrorist bases north of the Litani River in Lebanon shortly after midnight last Friday. At least 35 terrorists were killed in the raid and one Israeli soldier was slightly wounded by a shell splinter.
The attack was the first by Israeli troops beyond the Litani River since Israel withdrew from south Lebanon last spring and left the job of policing that territory to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Christian militia. Defense Minister Ezer Weizman said last Friday that Israel will continue to strike at the terrorists anywhere and any time to protect its security.
(In Washington the State Department last Friday deplored the escalation of violence on the Lebanese border and expressed “regret” over Israel’s raid earlier that day. Department spokesman Thomas Reston urged “all parties concerned to exercise restraint in this dangerous situation and cooperate with UN forces to help the continuing instability in southern Lebanon.” The State Department implied that attacks from southern Lebanon by members of the Palestine Liberation Organization might be lessened if Israel supported the United Nations force in that area.)
This morning, salvoes of long range (122 mm.) Katyusha rockets rained down on Israeli villages and settlements in Upper Galilee and the northern Huleh region, sending residents into bomb shelters. Israeli artillery opened fire before noon on the rocket emplacements and on terrorist concentrations at Al Aisha and Arnun, the strongholds the Israeli army had attacked only 36 hours before. No Israeli casualties were reported today not was there any serious damage. But normal life was suspended in all of the borer villages. Schools remained closed and the civilian population spent the day in bomb shelters.
This morning’s terrorist attacks followed a five hour exchange of fire between the terrorists and Christian enclaves just inside Lebanon, north of Metullah. The terrorists opened fire on Christian forces, apparently in retaliation for aid rendered the Israeli army in its Friday morning foray into south Lebanon.
CHRONOLOGY OF LATEST FIGHTING
The chronology of the latest fighting was as follows. A bomb outrage in the Mahane Yehuda marketplace in Jerusalem last Thursday morning and an explosion in Haifa several hours later apparently decided Israel to retaliate heavily against the terrorist bases in south Lebanon where the perpetrators of the latest outrages are believed to have originated. Israeli artillery opened fire shortly after midnight Friday in the large terrorist bases and training centers north of the Litani River, a region occupied by the Syrian-led Arab peace-keeping forces.
The softening-up barrage lasted about an hour. At about 1 a. m. local time Friday, two Israeli task forces composed of paratroops and elements of the famed Golani Brigade entered Lebanon under cover of artillery fire and reached their targets unobserved. One was at Arnun, a terrorist mortar base about five miles north of Metullah, and the other, Al Aisha, nine miles north of Metullah where the terrorists’ concentrated mortars and light artillery.
Israeli forces quickly overran Arnun and demolished artillery and rocket launchers. The second force advanced on Al Aisha from where terrorist gunners had shelled Kiryat Shemona on Dec. 21, killing one man and wounding several other residents. It destroyed terrorist artillery and jeeps mounted with machine guns. The Israeli forces encountered no serious opposition from the terrorists who fled of their approach.
One terrorist was captured. Under interrogation he was identified as a member of a group of Lebanese regular army troops commanded by a ### El – Khatib that defected to the terrorists. He said the Israeli raid had caught them completely by surprise since the terrorists had not expected the Israelis to attack across the Litani River. The terrorists had expected aid from the Syrian forces but the latter refused to join the battle and fired not a single shot, the defector said.
SOME 8,000 TERRORISTS IN SOUTH LEBANON
Defense Minister Weizman and Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eitan flew to south Lebanon Friday morning to greet the returning Israeli soldiers. Weizman praised them for a masterful operation over difficult terrain which had achieved its objectives.
But the Israeli raid did not silence the terrorist guns for long. On Friday evening Katyusha rockets hit Kiryat Shemona and others were fired at Nahariya and other towns in northern Galilee. Three Israelis were injured by glass splinters when a rocket exploded at a kibbutz near the border. Two of the injured, were identified as Tzlil Gorali, 42 and his son, Avner, 10.
According to Israeli authorities, an estimated 8000 terrorists are concentrated in south Lebanon, about 3000 of them south of the Litani River. Since the Israeli army withdrew from that territory more than six months ago six terrorist attempts were made to infiltrate Israel. The latest occurred Jan. 13 when three terrorists attacked a guesthouse at Maalot and were slain by Israeli troops.
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.
