Israeli Planes Bomb Palestinian Targets : 2 Women, a Boy Killed, 19 Hurt in Reprisal Raid

Israeli warplanes bombarded Palestinian targets near the southern Lebanese port of Sidon today in a retaliatory raid. Two women and a boy were reported killed and 19 other civilians wounded.

No guerrillas were reported killed or injured in the raid.

Lebanese police sources said four planes struck at dawn, making two bombing runs on bases of the Syrian-backed Popular Struggle Front and other Palestinian factions just south of Sidon, a port city 24 miles south of Beirut.

In Tel Aviv, the Israeli military said the raid was in retaliation for an overnight attempt by four Arab guerrillas to infiltrate Israel in a rubber dinghy. The raid occurred several hours after rockets were fired into northern Israel from southern Lebanon.

Today’s raid in Lebanon destroyed several buildings, shops, depots and cars.

‘Dozens of Bombs’

“The roaring warplanes appeared all of a sudden in the sky shortly after dawn and twice dropped dozens of bombs on the targets,” a witness living near the area said.

In Washington, the White House deplored “the continuing cycle of violence” and urged adherence to “agreed-upon security arrangements between Lebanon and Israel that can ensure security and stability” for the two states.

The Israeli air strike aimed at the Popular Struggle Front--a Palestinian splinter group headed by Samir Ghousha with at least 150 followers--was the eighth in Lebanon this year and the fifth on Palestinian positions around Sidon.

The raid occurred four days after two assailants hurled hand grenades and opened fire on worshipers at a synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 21 Jews and themselves.

Israel has vowed retaliation for that attack. But in Israel, the military said today’s air raids on “a terrorist base” were “in direct retaliation” for the Popular Struggle Front attempt to send guerrillas into Israel by sea during the night.

A spokesman for the Israeli military said an Israeli patrol boat on a routine sweep off the coast detected and intercepted a rubber dinghy carrying four “terrorists” heading south under cover of darkness.

Guerrilla Wounded

The patrol boat fired on the dinghy and hit it, forcing the guerrillas to the shore. The military said at least one of the guerrillas was wounded but gave no details on the three others.

In Beirut, a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Front of Abul Abbas--the group that hijacked the Achille Lauro Italian liner last October--said its guerrillas had tried to infiltrate Israel and were intercepted.