— An Israeli infantry unit raided Toulin village six miles inside Lebanon last night and blew up four house after their occupants were evacuated, a military spokesman said. One Israeli soldier was slightly wounded in the operation. The village is in the area controlled by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) but the latter did not intervene in the Israeli raid, the second in 24 hours carried out against terrorist targets in south Lebanon.
Israel denied a UN report that its soldiers had clashed with units of UNIFIL or of the Lebanese regular army recently posted to the area. The UN report said a Lebanese soldier had been killed. Israeli army sources said they heard firing in the village after they left but did not know who was doing the shooting.
Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Zipori said on a radio interview tonight that Israel wants “to live in peace with UNIFIL which is fulfilling a UN mandate we recognize–to help the Lebanese government deal with Palestinian terrorist.”
Army sources said terrorists and UNIFIL troops are billeted side-by-side in Toulin. The villagers have a reputation for aiding terrorists who have made Toulin a forward staging area for attacks on Israel, including the assault on Kibbutz Misgav Am a year ago in which two Israelis, one a child, were killed.
ARMS AND AMMUNITION FOUND
The houses destroyed were said to have sheltered terrorists and yielded weapons, ammunition and explosives, army sources said. The raiding party had to cross difficult terrain to reach its objective but managed to achieve surprise. Toulin village is about three miles south of Kantara, a village that came under intense bombardment last month by Maj. Saad Haddad’s Christian forces. Three soldiers of the Nigerian contingent of UNIFIL were fatally wounded.
UNIFIL complained to Israel and to Haddad today that his militiamen had detained two UNIFIL observers from the Australian and French contingents. They were released later. According to UNIFIL, the observers were travelling through the Christian enclave on one of the days permitted them. Their jeep was seized and later found abandoned. Haddad denied that his men had detained the UN officers and claimed their jeep was stolen by a Lebanese villager.
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