Guerrillas Warn Israelis on Plans for ‘Security Zone’ in South Lebanon

Guerrilla fighters opposing Israeli troops in southern Lebanon will continue their attacks if Israel goes ahead with plans to control a “security zone” north of the Israel-Lebanon border using an Israeli-backed local militia, according to Lebanese resistance leaders.

And if the Israelis mount cross-border attacks after most of their troops withdraw from Lebanon, the Shia Muslim-led resistance will respond against northern Israeli towns or “anywhere Israel has people,” two regional leaders of Amal, the principal Shia Muslim political and military organization, said in separate interviews.

“We have the right to govern the last millimeter of our land,” said Dr. Ali Jaber, a physician and Amal political leader in the south. Referring to the Israeli-backed Lebanese militia known as the South Lebanon Army, headed by Gen. Antoine Lahad, Amal militia leader Mohammed Harkoush commented, “We have to fight Lahad’s people because (theirs) is the face of Israel.”

Most Specific Warning

The warnings, believed to be the most specific yet by Muslim resistance leaders in the south, added to concern that Israel’s announced withdrawal from Lebanon will not end hostilities along the border.

The Israel Defense Forces are in the midst of the second stage of the planned pullout, and Israeli government ministers are scheduled to consider the last phase this Sunday in a vital debate that will also concern final plans for the security zone.

When the Israeli Cabinet on Jan. 14 approved the three-stage withdrawal, it stated that in the final phase “the IDF will deploy along the Israeli-Lebanese international border while maintaining a zone in southern Lebanon where local forces (the South Lebanon Army) will operate with IDF backing.”

But as the date for the final withdrawal approaches--it is now expected to take place by late May or early June--some Israeli military experts are beginning to question the whole concept as possibly inviting continued friction with the predominantly Muslim local population of southern Lebanon.

Military sources have said that at least some plainclothes Israelis, and possibly as many as several hundred “advisers,” could remain north of the border after the rest of the troops pull out. They would almost certainly be targets for continuing resistance.

Hotbeds of Resistance

But the comments of the resistance leaders indicates that there will be trouble even if only the South Lebanon Army remains behind. A day this week spent touring Shia Muslim villages east of Tyre, which have been hotbeds of resistance to the Israeli occupation, underlined the growing sense of uncertainty and tension in the area as the withdrawal proceeds.

In Tyre, most shops were closed and the electricity was out. Repairmen are afraid to go to the source of the electrical problem because it is in an area that has been the scene of frequent clashes. Two dozen people lined up at a local station filling cans with scarce kerosene, which is used for heating and cooking.

On the coastal highway south of Tyre, huge flatbed trucks, heading back toward Israel in an army convoy, strained under the weight of dismantled watchtowers and giant blocks of concrete that had been used to fortify Israeli positions further north. “Stop! Border Ahead” said a sign still affixed to one block, which had been part of fortifications at the Qasmiyeh Bridge marking the northernmost point of Israel’s current occupation line in the area.

Mounds of dirt have replaced the concrete slabs at positions the Israelis have not yet abandoned. At a nondescript apartment in Tura, residents spoke through walkie-talkies to lookouts posted around the village as Harkoush spoke through an interpreter with visiting journalists.

Watching for Israelis

A woman covered except for her face in a chador was introduced as the village’s “coordinator of communications.” And two teen-age girls kept watch on the northern edge of town through large, military-style binoculars for any sign of approaching Israeli troops.

Tura has been hit three times under Israel’s “iron fist” policy of reprisal raids against southern Lebanese villages believed to be staging areas for attacks against Israeli troops. Harkoush said eight people have been killed in those raids, and 15 residents are still being held prisoner by the Israelis.

According to Israeli and U.N. reports, six Tura residents were killed and seven wounded during Israeli raids last Dec. 13, Feb. 23 and March 15. A badly damaged two-story building stood in the center of town as a mute reminder of one of those raids. A slab of concrete dangled by reinforcing rods where a missing corner of the house once stood. And a picture of Sami Haider, a local Amal leader killed by the Israelis, hung on the exposed second-floor wall of what was apparently once a living room.

Rocks, tires, and pieces of scrap metal used to erect roadblocks against approaching Israeli troops were beside the potholed road on the southern edge of town.

Harkoush bristled at the standard Israeli description of his guerrillas as “terrorists.” He charged that “the Israelis kill women and children (in their raids). We kill soldiers.”

Prisoner Release Urged

He said the Lebanese resistance could attack Israel “every day, but we don’t want to.” The object, he insisted, is only to force the Israelis to leave southern Lebanon alone. Harkoush called for the release of about 1,100 Lebanese still held in an Israeli prison after their transfer April 2 from a detention camp the Israelis tore down at Ansar.

“We want Israel to give us our people. If they will not give us our people, we cannot give them one minute of peace,” he said.

In addition to threatening to attack the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, Harkoush warned: “If Israel gets out of all Lebanese land but keeps coming back, or shelling (across the border), then their people will face the same . . . everywhere Israel has people.”

In nearby Borj Rahhal, tensions were heightened when an Israeli artillery round landed on a ridge about a mile away. The villagers were on edge anyway because an Israeli unit was known to be nearby.

More than half of the village men have left to work “on the other side” of the Israeli occupation lines, said an English-speaking schoolteacher. Ten others are still held by the Israelis, he said, although 41 were released after the Ansar camp was closed. Jaber, the regional Amal political leader, was delayed in reaching town because of the Israeli troops in the area, he said.

“I just move around from one village to another,” the English-speaking physician said. Asked if he was wanted by the Israelis, he replied: “I think that all the Lebanese who are against the Israelis are wanted by the Israelis.”

Amal’s Goals Cited

Jaber said Amal has two remaining goals in the south: “To liberate all the country, including the security zone, and to teach the Israelis not to interfere in our country, either directly or indirectly.”

He said that maintaining a security zone with the South Lebanon Army constitutes direct interference, while supplying arms to Lebanon’s Christian militias further north is indirect meddling. The Lebanese resistance “has the right to fight (the South Lebanon Army) in order to liberate that part of the country because it will be ruled by Israel,” Jaber said.

He also warned that if Israel could use Lebanese proxies inside the security zone, “We know how to create groups inside Palestine. We know how to teach them to fight the Israelis outside our borders.

“I have the right to live as you have the right to live,” he said, as if addressing Israel. “Why do you want to me to live as a slave to you?”