An Israeli air force raid Friday on a Palestinian terrorist target in Lebanon was described by Israeli officials as “routine” and not politically motivated.
It had nothing to do with Israel’s plans to deport 12 Palestinian activists for security reasons or the new round of peace talks starting in Washington this week, an Israel Defense Force spokesman stressed.
The target, located 12 miles south of Beirut, was identified as a headquarters base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a radical group led by Ahmed Jabril that rejects the peace process and has been linked to numerous terrorist incidents. The raid was described as successful.
According to the IDF, Israel is “not engaged in political calculations. Terrorist bases are attacked because terrorist activities never ceased since the peace process began.
“If anything, they have increased,” the IDF spokesman said, adding that “the PFLP-GC is part of the rejectionist front, so the timing issue is a non-issue.”
Reports from Lebanon said the Israeli jets hit a shanty town outside the middle class suburb of Na’ameh, near Damour, killing 12 people.
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