3 Israeli Soldiers Killed in Lebanon; Jets Attack : Fourth Serviceman Dies of Wounds; Air Strike in Bekaa Valley Called Blow Against Terrorists

Three Israeli soldiers were killed Sunday and the army announced the death of another from wounds received earlier as Israel suffered one of the costliest days in the last two years of its military occupation of southern Lebanon.

The day’s casualties came in two separate guerrilla attacks, the most significant of which occurred just “a few hundred meters” north of the international border, well inside what Israel has said will continue to be a critical security zone even after most of its troops withdraw from Lebanon.

Air Raid in Lebanon

Later Sunday, Israeli warplanes raided a Palestinian guerrilla base in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon. Military spokesmen said pilots reported accurate hits on a one-story building near Chtoura that had been used by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine to launch attacks on Israeli troops in the south.

Beirut radio reported that one person was killed and two wounded in the strike, and Reuters news agency quoted witnesses in Chtoura as saying a Palestinian and his wife and son were killed.

A senior military source in Tel Aviv said the air raid was part of a longstanding policy to strike what he called terrorist targets in Lebanon. There was no direct connection between the bombing raid and the earlier guerrilla attacks on Israeli soldiers, he said.

Near End of 1st Phase

The incidents occurred as the Israeli army neared completion of the first stage of its planned withdrawal from Lebanon. It is to evacuate the area around the port of Sidon by one week from today, according to an Israeli Cabinet decision made in mid-January.

The timing and exact details of the two subsequent stages are still undetermined, but by the end, most Israeli troops are to be redeployed on their own side of the international border.

However, senior defense officials stressed that, even after the planned withdrawal, Israel intends to exercise military hegemony over southern Lebanon. An Israeli-backed local militia, supplemented by Israeli advisers and possibly some combat units, will remain indefinitely in a narrow buffer zone north of the border. And Israel plans regular reconnaissance throughout the zone by air, sea and ground forces, these officials said.

Vulnerability to Attack

Sunday’s guerrilla attacks were part of a sharp increase during the last two weeks in Lebanese guerrilla resistance to the Israeli occupation. And they underlined the vulnerability of Israeli troops to concerted guerrilla actions.

The most worrisome of the attacks, from Israel’s point of view, occurred just north of Metulla, the northernmost settlement in Israel. Details of the incident were delayed pending notification of the dead soldiers’ next of kin. However, military sources said two Israelis were killed by a roadside bomb, which exploded several hundred meters north of the entry gate on the border erected by the Israeli army after the 1982 invasion.

“It’s a problem, because it means (anti-Israeli guerrillas) are getting very close to the border,” a senior defense official said.

The bombers’ identity was unclear, but the attack occurred in an area containing large numbers of Israeli troops and members of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia. It thus underscored Israeli fears that determined terrorists and guerrillas could follow the withdrawing Israeli army all the way back to the border, and possibly beyond.

In a second incident Sunday, a 20-year-old Israeli soldier was killed and three other soldiers were wounded by machine-gun fire in an ambush near Aaddoussiye, between Tyre and Sidon on the Lebanese coastal highway.

Also on Sunday, the army spokesman announced that Sgt. Baruch Ezra, 21, who was wounded in southern Lebanon one week ago, died of his wounds Saturday night.

Sunday’s toll brought to 615 the total number of Israelis killed in Lebanon since the June 6, 1982, invasion.