Israelis strike back with air raid on Beirut

Press, 22 August 1978, Page 8

Israelis strike back with air raid on Beirut

NZPA Beirut Two Israeli warplanes rocketed and strafed Palestinian targets in and around Beirut at daybreak yesterday, killing three guerrillas and wounding 14, the Palestinian high command has reported. Israel said the five-minute raid had been a retaliation for Sunday’s terrorist attack on an Israeli El Al Airline bus in London in which one Israeli stewardess and one assailant were killed. The Palestinian communique said the Israeli air attack had concentrated mainly on the refugee camp of Bourj el Barajneh on the southern edge of Beirut, close to the city’s international airport. “The camp’s sports club was struck heavily. Three strugglers fell martyrs and 14 were wounded,” said the statement. Bourj el Barajneh houses nearly 9000 United Nationsregistered Palestinian refugees. It is known to be a stronghold of George Habash’s Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. A P.F.L.P. splinter group has claimed responsibility for the London bus attack. The statement said the Is-

raeli jets had also struck athe school of the Palestin-ian-populated village of Damour, 18km south of t ’ Lebanese capital. But theic had been no casualties in Damour. One Israeli jet had been hit by guerrilla anti-aircraft defences and had been seen flying southwards with smoke billowing from its tail, the statement said. It did not say whether the plane was hit in Bourg e) Barajneh or Damour. Witnesses in Beirut, saw no hits scored and Israel said all the planes had returned safely home. The wail of ambulance sirens was heard in the stricken areas and doctors at adjacent hospitals were asked to report to duty at once. The air attack into Lebanon marked the second time this month that the Israeli Air Force has retaliated within hours for assaults on Israeli civilians. On August 3 the Air Force struck at what was described as a Palestinian training camp at Dahar a-Tutah after a bomb exploded under a children’s clothing stand in a Tel Aviv open-air market, killing a 71-year-old man and wounding 49 other people.