Israelis Take Offensive, Kill 11 Guerrillas

Israeli troops intercepted what an army spokesman called a “terrorist squad” as it crossed the Awwali River into southern Lebanon on Thursday, killing 11 and capturing nine. It was one of the largest such clashes in more than a year.

A senior Israeli defense source said the incident followed a recent high command decision to take the offensive against a fresh wave of guerrilla attacks on units of the Israel Defense Forces occupying southern Lebanon.

In another reflection of that decision, Israeli troops arrested 60 residents and bulldozed five houses during an all-day anti-guerrilla raid Thursday on Borj Rahhal, a village about five miles northeast of Tyre. Israeli military sources said one inhabitant was killed in “disturbances” that occurred during the raid--the third in eight days on Shia Muslim villages around Tyre.

A spokesman for the U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in an interview Thursday that it has protested to the Israeli army over a similar raid two days ago on the village of Tura. The army said one person was killed, two were wounded and two houses were bulldozed in that raid.

UNIFIL headquarters has protested that Israeli forces prevented U.N. troops from carrying out their duty under Security Council Resolution 511 to protect residents of the area, spokesman Timor Goksel said. He added that French U.N. troops were “removed forcibly” when they tried to keep the Israelis from bulldozing houses in Borj Rahhal on Thursday.

The incidents all occurred as Israeli troops made final preparations for their scheduled evacuation of the Sidon area in the first stage of a planned three-phase withdrawal from southern Lebanon. The first stage is to be completed by Monday.

Immediately after Israel announced its withdrawal plan in mid-January, guerrilla attacks against Israeli forces increased sharply. Most of the assaults were carried out by Shia Muslims, who make up the vast majority of southern Lebanon’s population and who oppose the Israeli occupation. Army statistics show that 36 attacks on Israeli forces in the region occurred in the first week of February alone.

“Since we know that they intend to increase attacks on us, we prefer to increase our activities,” a senior Israeli defense source said in explaining what he described as the new Israeli offensive. Also, he said, “The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is much, much better in offense than in defense. . . . There is higher morale with the troops when they know they are going to hit instead of waiting like sitting ducks.”

The offensive includes a larger number of patrols south of the Awwali to keep guerrillas from moving into areas around Sidon that are being evacuated by Israeli troops. It was one such patrol that engaged a band of 20 heavily armed Palestinians on Thursday.

Israelis refused to pinpoint the area where the clash occurred. However, military sources said the guerrillas carried a “large number” of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikov assault rifles. Security sources here believe the band was headed for Ein el Hilwa, a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Sidon.

There were no Israeli casualties in the incident, the army spokesman said.

Stepped-up raids on Shia Muslim villages known to be centers of resistance to the occupation are also part of the new Israeli offensive.

December Sweep

Both Borj Rahhal, the village raided Thursday, and Tura, searched two days earlier, were also involved in a mid-December anti-guerrilla sweep of the area around Tyre. A woman and a 14-year-old girl were found dead in Tura after that earlier raid.

According to U.N. spokesman Goksel, Borj Rahhal was surrounded early Thursday morning by a score of Israeli armored personnel carriers. Troops searched homes and rounded up about 150 men for interrogation. Sixty were taken away when the force departed in mid-afternoon, Goksel said.

Goksel said that eight French soldiers, on duty in the village when the Israelis arrived, tried to prevent them from bulldozing several houses. He said a “very heated argument” ensued and that in the end “they removed the French soldiers forcibly.”

Borj Rahhal is in an area that is supposed to be under protection of the French contingent in the 6,000-man U.N. brigade.