Israelis swoop on Palestinians

Press, 9 May 1980, Page 6

Israelis swoop on Palestinians

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Seaborne Israeli commandos fought gun-battles with Palestinian guerrilla units at two points along the Lebanese coast early' yesterday and Palestinian sources said five of their men were killed.

The Israeli raiders landed at Saadiyat, about 25km south of Beirut, and at Saksakiyeh, near the southern town of Sidon, the sources said. I An NZPA-Reuter corresI pondent in Sidon reported ;that two Palestinians died’ ,and two were wounded in] fighting at Saksakiyeh,] [where the Israelis blew up a[ [Palestinian jeep. i ! Palestinian sources in Bei-1 irut said that three of their! ■men were killed and twoj wounded at Saadiyat, near! the Palestinian guerrilla stronghold of Damour. The Israeli attackers had blown up two vehicles, they said. Palestinian guerrillas throughout Lebanon have been on top alert in expectation of Israeli revenge for a commando attack on the occupied West Bank town of Hebron last Friday : in which six Jewish settlers died and 15 were wounded. 1 Yesterday’s attack took: place as the United Nations] Security Council was ex-| pected to start private con-

t saltations on a Tunisian 7 i request for a meeting on Israel’s deportation to Leba- « non of two West Bank Arab ■’ mayors and a Muslim reli- , gious court judge. i The Israelis expelled the * three Palestinian leaders without legal proceedings ? after the Hedron guerrilla > strike. f In Herzlia in Israel, the.r latest round of talks on J Palestinian autonomy wound . up with just 19 days to go • to the target date for agree- ; ment and still no substantial » progress in sight. X Narrowly averting total ; stalemate, the delegates of 1 [lsrael, Egypt and the United i States agreed to carry on | discussions next- week in « Cairo on a format for dis- s cussing post-autonomy se- » curity issues. s On the substantive ques- *. tion of how security should be handled in the occupied • West Bank and Gaza if the j 1.2 million Palestinians who Z live there are granted au- • tonomy, Israel and Egypt re- | mained dauntingly far apart. The Herzlia talks were,-, supposed to have been the beginning of an intensive, virtually non-stop series of meetings to push aside the - obstacles and achieve an au- £ tonomy agreement by May i, 26, the target date pre- « scribed in the Camp David £ summit accords of 1978. s