Attacks on Israeli troops in Lebanon escalated over the Passover holiday. Staff Sgt. Yitzhak Orbacher, 37, of Ramat Gan, was killed Monday in an ambush near Kahale village, 12 kilometers east of Beirut. He was buried in Ramat Gan yesterday. Two other soldiers were wounded in the ambush.
An Israeli soldier was wounded Tuesday night when a patrol came under small arms and bazooka fire near Tyre. Another patrol was fired on at about the same time near the Ansar prisoner of war camp in south Lebanon, but without casualties.
Israeli tanks and artillery opened fire yesterday at houses near Dier Kharaf village, not far from the scene of the Monday night ambush. “Suspicious movements” were reported in the village which is behind Syrian lines and the nearest point to Beirut where Palestine Liberation Organization forces are stationed.
Sgt. Orbacher, a reservist on active duty, was one of 70 soldiers attending seder services Monday night when an Israel army patrol was caught in an ambush on the Beirut-Damascus highway near Kahale. The soldiers, hearing an exchange of fire, rushed to the scene. Orbacher, who was among them, was fatally shot.
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