Israeli strike into south Lebanon

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33740, 13 January 1975, Page 13

Israeli strike into south Lebanon

(New Zealand Press Association—Copyright)

BEIRUT, January 12.

Two hundred Israeli soldiers, supported by armoured vehicles, made a foray into the south-eastern Lebanese village of Kfar Shouba last night, reports the Palestinian news agency, W.A.F.A.

Palestinian guerrillas engaged them at 8.15 p.m. and fighting was still raging at midnight.

Earlier, W.A,F.A. said that Palestinian guerrillas had killed 12 Israelis in a grenade and submachine-gun attack on a military position at at Tel Rudeisat Al Alm, in northern Israel.

It also said that guerrillas ambushed two Israeli, halftrack vehicles on Mount Hermon, killing or wounding 10 occupants.

The agency said one guerrilla was wounded as the group fought its way back to base.

The guerrilla raid was in retaliation for Israeli attacks on Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon, W.A.F.A. said.

A military spokesman in Tel Aviv said the Israeli troops crossed into Lebanon to hunt for Arab guerrillas, and killed one.

The Israelis blew up roads and bridges around Kfar Shouba.

The guerrilla who died was blown up when his own grenades were detonated by Israeli gunfire, said the spokesman. Confirming the Mount Hermon ambush, an Israeli High Command communique in Tel Aviv said that four Israeli

soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously.

Bazooka fire

The Israelis were travelling on a border-patrol road in the Her Dov sector when they came under fire from bazookas and Kalashnikov assault rifles, the communique said. The Israelis returned the fire. The wounded were taken to a Haifa hospital by helicopter. Her Dov, also known as Djebel Rous, is an Israeli strong point overlooking southern Lebanon and Syria. An Israeli sergeant and four soldiers were killed in a similar ambush in the area on January 3. • Israeli artillery shelled crops outside two villages in south-east Lebanon for an hour early today. U.S. optimism I In Paris, the United States Assistant Secretary of State (Mr Joseph Sisco) was I quoted as saying that a new war in the Middle East was not unavoidable, and that he did not believe ‘‘the Israelis and the Arabs themselves think that a new conflict will necessarily occur,” since they showed a desire for a political settlement.

“It is true that the situation is dangerous, and presents great intricacies,” Mr Sisco said in an interview in the magazine, "Le Point.” "But the parties at hand have informed us of their will to start a new series of negotiations aimed at reaching a political settlement.” The United States Government was making intensive efforts to help a settlement. Leaders on both sides had asked America to help, he said. P.L.O. recognition In New Delhi, official sources said today that India had recognised the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and that an official announcement would be made later. The sources said formal documents enabling the P.L.O. to open an office in the Indian capital were signed yesterday in Beirut by the chairman of the P.L.O. (Mr Yasser Arafat) and the Indian Ambassador to the Lebanon.