Security Officials Probing Report That Gaza Strip Arabs Are Being Recruited by Terrorists in Lebanon

Security officials were reported today to be investigating the possibility that more Gaza Strip Arabs are responding to recruiting efforts by terrorists in Lebanon after three Gaza Arabs were challenged and killed Friday night on the Israeli-Lebanese border. They were apparently trying to slip through the border fence into Lebanon.

The shooting was the first in that area since January when Israeli patrols clashed with armed terrorists near Margaliot killing four of them. Israeli patrols have been alerted in response to reports that because of heavy losses in the civil war in Lebanon, the terrorist groups have been trying to recruit replacements from among Arabs in the administered areas. The alert orders were issued despite a meager response to the recruiting efforts.

An Israeli patrol was sent to the Shetula area where the three Arabs were seen trying to get through the border fence into Lebanon. They were challenged by the patrol and warning shots were fired into the air. When the Arabs continued their efforts, they were killed.

Documents on the bodies revealed they were from the Gaza strip and their names and addresses. Police went to the addresses over the weekend and made several arrests. Officials reported that about a year ago, an Arab youth was killed on a similar effort to cross over into Lebanon.

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST SYRIA

Meanwhile Arabs in several West Bank cities responded yesterday to the capture by Lebanese Christians of the Palestinian Tal Zaatar camp by staging stormy demonstrations against Syria. Some of the demonstrators in Nablus, Tulkarem and nearby Anbata tore up pictures of Syrian President Hafez Assad and burned the pieces.

They carried black flags and signs assailing Assad and the Syrian “massacre” of Palestinians in Lebanon. Other signs pledged revenge against the Syrians for the “brethren” who had been “butchered.”