Israeli helicopter gunships raided a coastal base of a hard-line Palestinian terrorist group in Lebanon on Saturday, destroying a rubber dinghy apparently being prepared for use in a seaborne raid against Israel.
The attack by Israeli forces targeted the marine base of Ahmed Jabril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in the Ein Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon.
Israeli military sources said that all its helicopters returned safely to base.
Lebanese police said that two men, a woman and a 12-year-old boy were injured in the attack.
The raid appears to have been the result of careful intelligence-gathering prior to the attack.
Israeli planes had flown several reconnaissance missions over the area and apparently spotted the dinghy, which had been kept outside.
Reports from Sidon said that a jeep with Syrian army license plates removed the remains of the boat from the scene. Reporters were prevented from photographing the vehicle.
The air attack came just a few hours after Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of the Iranian-backed Shi’ite Hezbollah organization, called for united armed resistance against Israel by all sects in the region.
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.
