Puzzled Israelis probe for raiders’ way in

Press, 9 April 1980, Page 8

Puzzled Israelis probe for raiders’ way in

NZPA-Reuter Tel AviV Israeli military chiefs yesterday investigated what went wrong with elaborate border defences that failed to stop a bloody Palestinian raid on a children’s nursery.' They want to know how five guerrillas weaved through a heavy screen of minefields and electronic warning systems to stage a strike on Monday at the Misgav Amm farm settlement one kilometre inside Israel. The Israelis were also angry with United Nations peace-keeping troops who they say failed to intercept the guerrillas slipping through their lines in south Lebanon on their way to the Israeli border.

A formal protest to United Nations headquarters in New York was being considered by Israel, officials in Jerusalem said. Three Israelis — the farm manager, a boy of two, and a soldier — were killed in the raid. Six children were held hostage in .the settlement’s nursery for nine hours before Israeli; troops

stormed in and killed all five guerrillas.

Palestinian commandos throughout Lebanon were reported to be'on full alert in anticipation of Israeli reprisals for the raid. The Israeli Defence Minister (Mr Ezer Weizman) would say after visiting the

settlement only that if there was to be retaliation, the world would hear about it afterwards, not before. The criticism of the United Nations surfaced at a press conference given by the Israeli Chief-of-Staff (General Rafael Eitan) after he, too, had visited the settlement.

The raiders had crossed United Nations lines, he said, and that was a source of serious concern to Israel. It was “ostensibly the job of the United Nations” to prevent guerrillas reaching the border,’he said.

The raid, the first big attack on Israeli territory in a year, came as Israelis were observing the last day of the Jewish Passover holiday. Responsibility was claimed by the pro-Iraqi Arab Liberation Front, which is part of the Palestihe Liberation Organisation. It said the attack had been aimed at winning freedom for Palestinians jailed in Israel. The dead Israeli boy and the. farm manager will be buried at the settlement today.