2 Israeli Soldiers, 3 Arabs Die in Border Clash : Stepped-Up Guerrilla Action Seen as Show of Support for Palestinian Uprising

In one of the most costly in a recent series of stepped-up Arab probes of Israel’s northern border defenses, a battalion commander and another soldier from an elite Israeli army unit were killed and two other soldiers were wounded Tuesday during a predawn clash with guerrillas.

Three Arab infiltrators also died in the short but fierce battle on the western slopes of Mt. Hermon, near the point where the Israeli, Syrian, and Lebanese borders meet. Israel Radio reported that the exchange of fire at one point took place at a distance of only about 6 feet.

The death toll brought to at least 11 the number of Israeli soldiers who have been killed along the northern border in the last five months. Dozens of Arabs--most of them Palestinians--have also died in at least 11 attempted infiltrations. These incidents date to Nov. 25, when a guerrilla used a hang glider to cross the border and attack an army base, killing six Israeli soldiers, before he was shot to death.

Western diplomatic sources attributed the stepped-up border activity to the desire of Palestinians outside Israel to show support for the nearly five-month-old Arab uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“They seem too idle doing nothing outside when the guys are getting killed inside,” said one source who monitors activities in southern Lebanon. “There are a lot of red faces around.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said last weekend that 165 Palestinians have died in the recent violence in the occupied territories and that 5,000 more are in prison. Official Israeli figures show that about 1,300 Palestinians have been wounded, mostly by army gunfire. Thousands more have been hospitalized for beating and other injuries.

One Israeli soldier and one teen-age Jewish civilian have also been killed in the unrest, and 450 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been injured, mostly by rocks or flying glass.

The Western diplomatic source said that the rate of northern border probes has accelerated this month and that some infiltration attempts were not reported by the Israeli authorities. These probes were stopped by U.N. troops and Lebanese Amal militia units stationed in southern Lebanon.

In Beirut, the anti-Israeli Lebanese National Resistance Front claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s infiltration, saying it was a joint Lebanese-Palestinian operation. However, diplomatic sources were skeptical and said it was probably a purely Palestinian action. Maj. Gen. Yossi Peled, Israeli troop commander in the north, said that the three dead guerrillas were all Palestinians.

According to an Israeli army spokesman, a patrol operating inside Israel’s self-proclaimed “security zone” in southern Lebanon found the tracks of a guerrilla squad in an area called Har Dov, on the western slopes of Mt. Hermon, and pursued the group with the aid of helicopters.

A Lebanese police spokesman and Western sources in Lebanon said Israeli air and ground forces used hundreds of flares to light up the night sky, starting at about 3 a.m.

At about 7 a.m., according to the Israeli army account, one of its units “encountered a terrorist squad that had hidden in our territory in thick vegetation some 200 meters (220 yards) from the border. The force attacked the terrorists, and in a short battle, during which the terrorists threw hand grenades and shot (anti-tank) missiles, the three terrorists were eliminated. Also . . . two IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers were killed and two others wounded.”

Israel Radio identified one of those killed as Lt. Col. Shmuel Adiv, 29, a battalion commander of the elite Givati Brigade.

The brigade’s commander told reporters in the north that the infiltrators were on their way to attack an Israeli settlement in the region.

A Lebanese police spokesman said in Beirut that there were seven guerrillas in the raiding party, including members of two pro-Soviet groups--the Lebanese Communist Party and George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Previous Incursions

When Palestinian guerrillas last infiltrated the northern border on April 5, two were killed, one was captured, and four Israeli soldiers were injured in a clash. Two Israeli soldiers were killed stopping an infiltration on Feb. 4, and another died of wounds received during a Jan. 20 attempt.

Just last week, at least six Arab guerrillas were killed by Israeli troops and their allies in the South Lebanon Army militia in two separate clashes just north of the international border. Israeli aircraft have conducted at least six rocket attacks against reputed Palestinian military targets in Lebanon so far this year. The latest was last Saturday.

Israel says that its troop deployment in the 6-to-10-mile-deep southern Lebanon “security zone,” along with the forces on its northern border, are necessary to protect its northern settlements from infiltration and rocket attacks.