Two Israeli Soldiers Killed in South Lebanon Fighting : Nation Suffers First Combat Deaths Since Withdrawal in June; Three Guerrillas Also Die in Security Strip

Two soldiers were killed in a skirmish in southern Lebanon today, marking the first Israeli combat deaths since the nation announced the completion of its withdrawal from Lebanon in June.

Two other Israelis were wounded and three guerrillas were killed in the clash in the Israeli-maintained security strip just inside Lebanon, the military said.

Earlier, the army announced that several Israeli border police were injured by a gasoline bomb and that a bus was stoned in the occupied West Bank.

Anti-Terrorism Steps

The violence occurred hours after the Cabinet decided Sunday on a range of stiff anti-terrorism measures in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including deportations, indefinite detentions and the closure of Arab newspapers violating censorship regulations. (Story on Page 4.)

In Washington, the State Department said today that it hopes Israel will not carry out the stiff new measures.

“We regret the Cabinet’s decision and hope that these measures will not be implemented,” State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said.

He said that although Washington deplores the violence, “we consider such measures as likely to foster further tensions.”

Cabinet Action Condemned

In Damascus, Syria, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine today condemned the Israeli Cabinet action as a terrorist reaction that would lead to widespread expulsions of Palestinians from the occupied territories.

The Popular Front, a Marxist guerrilla group, said the measures showed that Israel intended to “kick out big numbers of Palestinian national personalities.”

In southern Lebanon, the army said, two Israeli soldiers were killed and two others wounded when an Israeli Defense Force patrol “encountered a terrorist squad east of the village of Majdal Selim.”

The three guerrillas killed in the battle were carrying a Soviet-made Kalashnikov rifle, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, communications equipment and hand grenades, the army said.

The Israeli deaths were the first since June, when Israel announced that it had withdrawn its combat units from Lebanon, ending a three-year involvement. It said then that only advisers had been left behind to help the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army patrol a narrow security zone north of the border.