Israeli Jets Bomb Palestinian Bases Near South Lebanon Port

Israeli warplanes streaked through a barrage of ground fire Monday and bombed several bases used by Palestinian guerrillas near this southern port.

It was the third Israeli air raid this year on the Sidon area, where guerrillas have been rebuilding bases destroyed by Israel’s 1982 invasion.

Police said five Palestinians and a 21-year-old Lebanese woman were injured. State-run Beirut radio said two people were killed and 22 wounded in the 45-minute air strike on bases near the teeming Ein el Hilwa and Miye ou Miye refugee camps and at the hilltop village of Siroubieh. There was no confirmation of the radio report.

3 Syrian Deserters

In Jerusalem, Israeli military sources said the bases were attacked because three Syrian army deserters captured eight days ago had used the bases to coordinate an aborted hostage-taking attack in the Galilee region of north Israel.

The Israeli army and the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-backed Lebanese militia, captured the Syrians--who were working with the Palestinians--in the “security zone” in southern Lebanon declared by Israel last year. Israel set up the zone when it removed the bulk of its forces after a three-year occupation.

The raids came as about 1,100 Lebanese Red Cross workers staged a nationwide 24-hour strike to protest the kidnaping of volunteer colleagues. It was the first such action by the group since its founding 41 years ago.

“The warring factions have to pick up their own casualties for the next 24 hours,” said a Red Cross official in Beirut, referring to various Muslim and Christian militias that have been warring in the capital.

Despite the strike by their colleagues elsewhere in the nation, Lebanese Red Cross workers from Sidon aided in the rescue efforts in the two camps after the Israeli raid.

About 10 U.S.-made F-16 and F-15 Israeli jets made runs on and around the camps for nearly an hour, reducing to rubble several buildings used by guerrillas, the witnesses said.

The jets evaded Palestinian anti-aircraft fire and released crimson hot-air balloons to decoy Soviet-made SAM-7 missiles, the witnesses said.

The Israeli military reported “accurate hits on the targets” and said all planes returned safely.