Israeli soldiers and Palestinian terrorists exchanged fire for several hours today in the eastern sector of the Lebanese front. No Israeli soldiers were injured in what a military spokesman described as the most serious breach of the cease-fire in Lebanon in a month.
Army sources said the exchange began when snipers behind Syrian lines opened fire on Israeli positions near Yanta, 22 kilometers east of Lake Karoun. Israeli soldiers returned the fire which escalated to machinegun and rocket exchanges. The sources said the Israelis limited their fire to the immediate area from where they were being attacked in order to avoid an eruption of fighting along the entire eastern front.
The incident was the second since Sunday night when Palestinian terrorists fired rockets and small arms at Israeli positions north of Amik on the eastern front. An army spokesman said the fire was returned and no Israeli soldiers were hit. But one Israeli soldier was slightly wounded a day earlier when he was caught in cross fire between battling Druze and Christian factions near the town of Aleh.
Meanwhile, Israeli and foreign journalists have protested a new army order barring them from driving Israeli vehicles in Lebanon without an escort of army jeeps. The army, for its part, has refused to provide escorts. Israel TV has to rely on film provided by U.S. and other foreign networks from Lebanon and newspapers use foreign news agencies dispatches to report on Beirut.
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