U.S. Avoids Criticizing Israel on Incursion

The United States said Thursday that it deplored the violence that followed an Israeli armed raid into south Lebanon this week, but it stopped short of criticizing Israel for its actions.

Commenting on the cross-border mission that Israeli forces staged in retaliation for Palestinian guerrilla infiltrations into northern Israel, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said: “These incidents, and the resulting deaths and damage inflicted over more than a decade upon the inhabitants of both southern Lebanon and northern Israel, are tragic and inevitably set back prospects for achieving security and stability in the area.”