Israeli Jets Attack Palestinian Bases : Copter Rescues Downed Airman in Lebanon

Israeli warplanes attacked suspected Palestinian guerrilla bases Thursday near Sidon, Lebanon, and one plane was shot down with a Soviet-made missile. Four people were reported killed and 10 injured in the raid.

One crew member on the downed plane apparently eluded Lebanese patrols and escaped by grabbing onto the undercarriage of an Israeli rescue helicopter. The other crewman was officially listed as missing, although some reports suggested he was dead.

The raid appeared to be in retaliation for a hand grenade attack Wednesday night in Jerusalem in which one person was killed and 70 others were wounded.

Repeated Bombing Runs

Western news agencies reporting from Sidon said ambulances and fire engines were sent to the scene after Israeli jets made repeated bombing and rocketing runs around the Miye ou Miye Palestinian refugee camp southeast of Sidon.

The camp is thought to be a stronghold of supporters of Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which early Thursday was the first of several guerrilla groups to claim responsibility for the grenade attack in Jerusalem. Four Palestinian bases in the area were thought to be the target.

The Israeli military command confirmed that its warplanes struck in south Lebanon during the afternoon and that one was shot down. A spokesman said that the two crew members bailed out of the stricken aircraft and that one was rescued 90 minutes later in what was described as “a quick and daring operation” by Israeli attack helicopters.

The other crew member was still listed as missing, according to the spokesman for the Israeli military command. A local Amal militia commander in Sidon, however, told the Associated Press that one pilot was killed.

News of the plane’s downing was held by Israeli military censors for eight hours while Israeli troops conducted searches for the missing man.

It was the first Israeli fighter shot down over Lebanon since 1983. Lebanese sources identified the Israeli aircraft as a Phantom A-4 and said it was downed by a Soviet-made SAM-7 missile.

No Rescue Details

There were earlier independent reports that the Israeli crew members were being held by the relatively moderate Shia Muslim Amal militia rather than by Palestinians or members of the more radical Hezbollah (Party of God) Shia group.

Israeli radio reported early today that both crewmen had been fired upon as they parachuted to the ground. The crewman who was rescued had parachuted into an overgrown area very near the targets of the attack, the report added. He then used standard equipment to send up a signal of his location.

An Israeli helicopter approached and hovered over the area where he landed, the report said. The man then grabbed the undercarriage of the helicopter and hung on as the aircraft made its way to the nearby beach. There, the helicopter, which was fully loaded, landed briefly so the crewman could be securely lashed to the undercarriage for the flight back to Israel. He was checked at a hospital and released Thursday night.

Israeli fighters and helicopters were said to still be active over the area Thursday evening.

Witnesses said three formations of four jets each flew in for bomb and rocket runs starting at 3:50 p.m. They said the planes conducting the raid had released balloons to deflect the Soviet-made, heat-seeking missiles but that Palestinian fighters firing rockets from shoulder-held launchers managed to hit one of the aircraft.

Thursday’s was the 13th Israeli air raid on targets in southern Lebanon this year, and as one independent security source noted: “You do (that many) attacks in a year, and one day somebody’s going to get lucky.”

A Shia Muslim militia commander, Abu Jamil Ghaddar, said the two pilots of the downed plane bailed out and landed in an olive grove, one alive and one dead. He said the survivor was captured in the grove between Siroubieh and Anqoun--suburbs of this city 25 miles south of Beirut.

Shot at Parachuting Pilots

He said militiamen fired as the pilots descended and “one flier was seen dropping off the parachute strips, but I cannot say whether he was killed by gunfire or died as a result of this crash,” the Associated Press reported.

Black smoke from the raids and the plane crash hung over the Sidon area into the early evening. The raid came less than 24 hours after unidentified assailants tossed at least two hand grenades into a crowd of Israeli soldiers and well-wishers who had just attended an induction ceremony at Judaism’s holiest site.

The father of one recruit was killed in the blasts, and 34 other victims remained hospitalized with their injuries. One of the wounded was said to be in critical condition; 10 others were listed as serious.

The attack occurred as members of the 5th Platoon of the Givati Infantry Brigade were returning to their buses after a swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall of the Second Temple, the only remnant of the complex destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. The site, often called the Wailing Wall, is revered by Jews as a place of prayer and pilgrimage, and it is often used for Israeli military ceremonies.

Used Soviet Grenades

Of the attack’s 70 victims, 42 were soldiers. Israeli security sources said the attackers used Soviet-made M-1 fragmentation grenades.

As expected, the incident sparked angry demonstrations by Israel’s political right. Members of the Tehiya (Renaissance) party, which favors annexation of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, demonstrated in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, calling for stepped-up security measures.

West Bank Closing Urged

“They shouldn’t be allowed to walk freely while we are in ghettos,” said Geula Cohen, a Tehiya member of the Knesset (Parliament), referring to Arabs in the occupied territories. She also called for the closing of West Bank Palestinian universities, which she called “terror schools.”

In Jerusalem, members of right-wing Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach party, which advocates mass expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories, marched through the Arab quarter of Jerusalem’s walled Old City.

Israel radio reported that half a dozen Kach activists were arrested when they defied police orders not to enter Silwan, an Arab village adjacent to the parking lot where the grenade attack took place.

There had been reports that two attackers fled from the scene toward Silwan in a car driven by an accomplice.

The police continued to search Arab neighborhoods just south of the Old City on Thursday, and a police spokeswoman said at least one additional Palestinian was arrested. At least 20 Arabs suspected of participating in the attack or of withholding information were reportedly in custody Thursday night.