5 Israeli Soldiers Killed in Clash With Guerrillas : Lebanon: Two Palestinians also die in battle in security zone. Jets strike back, bombing bases.

An old Middle East flash point flared again Tuesday as five Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon in a clash with Palestinian guerrillas, and, a few hours later, Israeli jets bombarded Palestinian bases in the volatile neighboring country.

The jet raids were not in retaliation for the killings, Israeli officials said, but part of “routine operations” in Lebanon.

Two Palestinians were killed during the midnight gunfight with Israeli troops, part of a contingent that routinely patrols Israel’s so-called security zone, a buffer strip inside Lebanon along Israel’s northern border.

The bloodshed highlighted concern in Israel that a shifting balance of power in Lebanon will spill into the militarized zone, which is designed to thwart guerrilla attacks on Israel. While much of the world has been watching the Persian Gulf, Israel has been expanding its military operations in Lebanon to limit the threat it perceives from the north.

The clash in Lebanon came amid turmoil on Israel’s other borders. On Sunday, three soldiers and a civilian were shot and killed by an Egyptian border guard in southern Israel.

The hostile atmosphere results from several factors, Israeli analysts say. Passions among Muslims in Israel and abroad have flared since the October killing of 20 Palestinians by police at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque.

Arab grass-roots support for Saddam Hussein in his confrontation with the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf is also reflected in the border turmoil, especially in Jordan.

In Lebanon, Syria’s crackdown on Christian militias in Beirut and the expulsion of Shiite Muslims from the city is also shaking up the military panorama. Israeli officials have expressed concern that militias shifting to the south will challenge Israel’s control of the buffer strip.

Israel relies on the South Lebanon Army, an allied Christian militia, to dominate the zone, but the defeat of Christians in Beirut is said to have demoralized the SLA.

“There will be new pressures. The SLA took inspiration from the Christian resistance in Beirut, and now that is gone,” said Israeli army spokesman Moshe Fogel.

Last week, Israel announced a policy to permit its troops to make forays north of the buffer zone in order to head off hostile units before they reach Israeli-controlled Lebanese territory. The policy was revealed after an army officer was killed in a battle north of the strip.

“What we are trying to do is push the terrorists as far as possible from the Lebanese border,” said Gen. Yossi Peled, commander of Israel’s northern region.

Commented a Western diplomat: “In essence, Israel will be creating a firing zone to protect the strip itself.”

The Western observer and Israeli analysts predict that Israel will increase air raids to supplement ground forays if the government perceives a buildup of hostile forces north of the buffer strip.

On Tuesday, Israeli jets swooped down on a base belonging to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another PLO faction, and a camp belonging to the Revolutionary Council of Fatah, a breakaway Palestinian group headed by terrorist Abu Nidal. Both targets are east of Sidon.

Jets fired rockets on a military base and nearby positions, reports from Lebanon said, flattening buildings and starting fires. Israeli jets have raided Lebanon 17 times this year.

The ground battle Tuesday took place within the buffer zone near the village of Shebaa, Israeli officials said. Shebaa is located at the eastern end of a main infiltration route to the south.

There were several conflicting reports of how the soldiers died. The army gave at least three versions: They were killed in an exchange of rifle fire; a Palestinian played possum and then threw a grenade at the troops as they approached; a grenade blew up in the hand of a wounded Israeli.

Another report said that a Palestinian corpse was booby-trapped.

After Syria cleared Christian opponents of Lebanon’s central government out of Beirut, the beneficiary of the move, Lebanese President Elias Hrawi, made it clear that he wants Israel out of the south and its militia disbanded.

Israel is eyeing with suspicion Hrawi’s plans to put his army in the town of Jezzine, at the northern edge of the security strip, as part of an effort to extend control over the whole country.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens blamed Syria for the stepped-up attacks in Lebanon and said, without elaboration, that warming relations between Damascus and Washington “could be a factor” in Syria’s actions.

A Syrian-backed group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, was the target of an Israeli air raid Nov. 1. On Saturday, an Israeli patrol boat sank a dinghy off the southern Lebanese coast, killing five guerrillas of the group, which is headed by Ahmed Jibril. The next day, a woman belonging to another pro-Damascus splinter group tried to wipe out an Israeli patrol with a bomb but blew herself up instead.