PLO Council Hails Attacks Against Israel : Sources Say Arafat May Reconcile with Assad, His Main Arab Foe

The Palestinians’ parliament in exile Tuesday hailed a surge in guerrilla attacks against Israel that coincided with a vow by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat to maintain military pressure on the Jewish state.

“Glory and immortality for our martyrs,” declared Abdel-Hamid Sayeh, chairman of the Palestine National Council, after reading aloud a report about guerrilla activities in southern Lebanon and northern Israel’s Galilee panhandle.

In another development, Palestinian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated that Arafat may soon reconcile with Syrian President Hafez Assad, his main Arab foe, who has tried to wrest control of the Palestinian movement from him.

Such a reconciliation would end two years of clashes between Syrian-backed Lebanese militias and Arafat’s forces and give him the base he needs in Lebanon for cross-border attacks into Israel.

Sayeh spoke at the second session of the council, meeting in Algiers to map a new PLO strategy after Arafat’s main guerrilla rivals reunited, ending a four-year feud. The move was seen as signaling an escalation in guerrilla operations against Israel.

Palestinian guerrillas and their fundamentalist Shia Muslim allies in Lebanon’s Hezbollah, or Party of God, have been stepping up attacks. Israel’s military command reported that guerrillas fired Soviet-designed rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Galilee on Tuesday for the third time in five days as border tension heightened.

Sayeh claimed in Algiers that Palestinians of “martyr Ali Abu Tawk’s unit” were with Hezbollah militants who clashed Saturday with an Israeli patrol in the Jewish state’s self-designated security zone in south Lebanon.

Confirms Battle Deaths

Sayeh confirmed Israeli reports that 18 fighters were killed Saturday in a clash with an Israeli patrol.

Sayeh told the heavily guarded session, attended by nearly 1,500 delegates, observers and journalists, that Fatah guerrillas infiltrated into Israel from southern Lebanon on Sunday.

Tuesday’s session of the “congress of unity” was devoted mainly to speeches of solidarity by foreign delegates, including representatives from Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania and Italy’s Communist Party.

The council was scheduled to tackle the crucial task of restoring unity to the PLO’s eight factions.

Six of them, plus the Palestine Communist Party, have agreed to political and organizational reforms to cement the unity drive.

Two Syrian-backed factions boycotted the session. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Saika, or the Thunderbolt, have little support outside Syria among the world’s 5 million Palestinians.

The reforms are designed to give the radical factions once again allied with Arafat a say in the PLO’s decision-making process.

But Arafat’s loyalists are expected to continue to dominate a new executive committee, the PLO’s ruling body, which will be elected by the council.

In an interesting sidelight, Mohammed Abbas, the guerrilla leader wanted in Italy and the United States as the mastermind of the Achille Lauro hijacking, has surfaced at the meeting.

Abbas, who is known as Abul Abbas, is loyal to Arafat and was among the architects of this week’s reconciliation of PLO factions. He had a front seat Monday when Arafat delivered his speech opening the Palestinian parliament in exile.

His presence in Algiers prompted the United States to lodge a formal protest with Algeria, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said Tuesday.

“We are protesting to the government of Algeria for allowing this notorious terrorist into their country,” Redman said in Washington.