Reports from Lebanon today said a third brigade of the Syrian commanded Palestine Liberation Army has joined two others that entered Lebanon earlier this week and that elements of these have joined in the fighting. Unconfirmed reports said PLA units were using Syrian 155 mm. artillery to shell Lebanese army units. The Lebanese regulars are trying to avoid contact with the PLA and are withdrawing to the central mountain ridge that bisects the country, these reports said.
The latest incursion into Lebanon was by units of the PLA’s Yarmoukh brigade which is deployed on the northern slopes of Mt. Hermon and in the region of southeast Lebanon known as “Fatahland” adjoining the Israeli border. According to reports from Lebanon, they are taking part in the fighting around Zaleh on the Beirut-Damascus road and in the southern region. A battalion of the Kadessiyeh brigade that entered Lebanon earlier is also deployed along the Beirut-Damascus road and some of its elements may have joined the fighting, the reports said.
Units of the Hittin brigade are positioned around the port city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the country’s second largest city. All of the Palestinian units are equipped with armored cars and 155 mm. artillery, reports said.
GUR REITERATES WARNING TO SYRIA
Arab affairs experts said here today that the invasion of Lebanon by Syrian-controlled Palestinian units was intended to create a “comfortable” atmosphere for the high-level Syrian delegation that arrived in Beirut today reportedly to seek a cease- fire in the Moslem-Christian civil war.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Chief of Staff, Gen. Mordechai Gur, reiterated last night Israel’s warning to Syria against direct intervention in the Lebanese conflict. Addressing a dinner of the United Israel Appeal-Keren Hayesod mission in Jerusalem, Gur said Israel was capable of checking any Syrian intervention in Lebanon.
Gur said that if Syria intervened directly in Lebanon, Israel would be forced to review its policy. He said Israel never regarded Lebanon as an enemy or confrontation country but that the Palestinians and leftist elements in Lebanon were trying to drag that country into direct conflict with Israel.
The Chief of Staff said the terrorists in Lebanon and even Syria alone posed no military danger to Israel but if Lebanon became a confrontation country and was joined by Syria and all of the other Arab countries in a new war against Israel, the situation would become dangerous. Gur said that in view of the influx of arms into the Arab states, Israel had to build up its forces to be able to deal with three different weapons technologies–Soviet, American and West European–all of which are being purchased by the oil-rich Arab countries.
CORRECTION
The Israel Bond Organization raised $277 million in cash last year, not $27 million as reported in Wednesday’s Bulletin. Also the Prime Minister’s Club for 1976 consists of persons who have each signed up for purchases of $25,000 or more of Bonds for the year.
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.
