Israeli Warplanes Strike Deep Inside Lebanon

Israeli jets struck down power lines and fired missiles at army and guerrilla positions deep inside Lebanon on Wednesday to retaliate for a rocket bombardment of villages in northern Israel.

Officials in Jerusalem insisted that the raids were carefully planned to avoid civilian bloodshed, and the known casualties were two Lebanese children hurt when the roof of their house collapsed under the bombardment.

It was Israel’s first direct attack in this week’s tit-for-tat exchanges that have killed at least eight Lebanese civilians and wounded dozens of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border. Southern Lebanon has for years been the scene of combat between Israeli troops and Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas.

This week’s violence prompted an emergency meeting in Lebanon on Wednesday of the five-nation military team that monitors an April 1996 cease-fire in which combatants agreed to stop targeting civilians.

Besides the United States and France, the team represents Israel, Syria and Lebanon--the three countries directly involved in the conflict. U.N. officials in Lebanon said they expect the cycle of strikes and counterstrikes to subside.

That cycle began Monday when a bomb in Lebanon killed two teenage children of the late commander of an Israeli-backed Lebanese militia. The South Lebanon Army militia struck back that day by shelling the Lebanese port city of Sidon, a Hezbollah stronghold, killing six civilians and wounding dozens more.

Hezbollah replied Tuesday by firing scores of rockets into northern Israel, destroying homes, driving thousands of villagers into bomb shelters and emptying busy resort hotels. Three civilians were wounded.

Israel’s retaliation Wednesday was cautious and somewhat reluctant. According to Israeli newspapers, the defense and foreign ministers argued against an armed response, saying it could provoke more deadly exchanges and undermine last year’s cease-fire agreement.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, siding with Cabinet hard-liners and the army, approved airstrikes on three targets--a mountainous Hezbollah base at Janta near the Syrian border; a Lebanese army artillery battery between Tyre and Sidon that had reportedly sided with Hezbollah in Monday’s fighting, and an electricity pylon at Jiye, 12 miles south of Beirut.

The raids reached far beyond the 9-mile-deep strip of Lebanese borderland occupied by Israeli soldiers since 1985.

The only target hit, judging by reports from Lebanon, was the pylon. That attack brought down lines feeding electricity to hundreds of homes and businesses, causing a blackout for several hours.

A statement from the Israeli army said its jets caused the blackout “to make clear to the Lebanese government that it must start reining in Hezbollah.”

“The message to Lebanon was this: ‘If we can’t have tourists, you can’t have electricity,’ ” said David Bar-Illan, a Netanyahu spokesman.

Officials in Jerusalem insisted that Israel is trying to avoid a large-scale intervention.

“The policy today was not to react massively and certainly not in kind,” Bar-Illan said. “But if we fail to react at all, we invite another probe by Hezbollah, and another one, and that’s what leads to a situation [getting] out of hand.”

Amid the violence, Israel and Hezbollah have repeated their support for the 1996 cease-fire--as long as the other side respects it.

Also Wednesday, in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat opened a two-day “national dialogue” with opposition groups with an appeal for Palestinian unity and a warning to Israel that “all options are open,” including a new Palestinian revolt.

Hugging and kissing his Islamic militant rivals, Arafat said Palestinians would stand united against the Israeli government, which retaliated for a double suicide bombing in July by sealing the West Bank and Gaza and withholding millions of dollars in vitally needed Palestinian tax revenues.