Two Israeli Soldiers Killed by Guerrillas Infiltrating Border; One Attacker Slain

In the second such attack in two weeks, Palestinian guerrillas infiltrated Israeli defenses on the Lebanese border Thursday and killed two Israeli soldiers. One of the guerrillas was killed and another captured.

The border gun battle came as other Israeli troops struggled through another day of trying to keep order in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, an effort that left at least four demonstrators wounded by gunfire, including a 10-year-old boy, and three others hospitalized from rubber bullets.

The guerrilla attack, mounted from what is supposed to be an Israeli-controlled “security zone” in southern Lebanon, occurred just before dawn near Yiftah, an agricultural kibbutz just east of the Lebanon border and about five miles south of Kiryat Shemona in the Galilee panhandle.

Hole Detected in Fence

According to an army spokeswoman, a paratrooper patrol detected a hole in the barbed-wire-topped electrified fence that marks the frontier about 4 a.m. She said the guerrillas evidently intended to attack a kibbutz and take hostages.

As the soldiers checked the area, a rocket from a shoulder-held missile launcher struck their jeep, destroying the vehicle, killing one trooper outright and wounding two others, the spokeswoman said. A second Israeli died later in a hospital.

Other soldiers searched the area, she said, and wounded and captured one of the guerrillas, who quickly indicated that there were others nearby. The spokeswoman said a second guerrilla was chased down and, after an exchange of grenades, was shot and killed. A third raider evidently escaped back into Lebanon.

Rocket Fired Into Zone

Another army spokesman said a Russian-designed Katyusha rocket was fired from the security zone into Israel near Kiryat Shemona but did no apparent damage.

The Thursday gunfight was a near-replica of a Jan. 20 guerrilla effort to raid across the border, when a battle left three guerrillas and an Israeli soldier dead.

An even earlier raid in the same area, on Nov. 25, resulted in the deaths of six Israeli soldiers and one Palestinian when guerrillas using motorized hang gliders crossed the border and attacked an army base near Kiryat Shemona.

All three incidents raised several questions, including the capability of the Israeli military and its ally, the South Lebanon Army--a Christian-dominated but Israeli-financed and -trained militia--to successfully police the security zone.

The attacks also cast doubt on the theory held by some Israelis and other observers that Muslim forces in southern Lebanon, while not friends of Israel, can effectively hold down Palestinian raids in order to prevent the violent Israeli retaliations that have occurred in the past.

In Beirut, the Palestine Liberation Organization immediately claimed responsibility for the Thursday attack, as it had for the previous two incidents.

Military officials said the PLO claim was credible, particularly in light of its effort to direct the two months of violence that have scarred the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The PLO “is trying to demonstrate its partnership and its ability to influence the happenings in the (occupied) territories,” Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, army chief of staff, said after touring the scene of Thursday’s battle.

Violence Continues

Meanwhile, the violence in the occupied territories showed no signs of abating.

Although Israeli troops enforced total curfews in 15 Palestinian refuge camps and occupied territorial towns, including Nablus, the largest city on the West Bank, rock- and bottle-throwing rioters took on the army throughout the area.

The most serious confrontation happened at the Balata refuge camp near Nablus, where Israeli troops fired on demonstrators who attacked them with stones, wounding two with live ammunition and another three with rubber bullets. By army accounts, two other protesters were hospitalized after being shot with live ammunition during a riot in Sair.

The Palestine Press Service, a pro-PLO news agency with extensive contacts in the area, reported Thursday that a 34-year-old man who had been wounded Dec. 9 at the Gaza Strip refuge camp of Jabaliya died during the day. The report was not confirmed.

At least 40 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the Dec. 9 outbreak of violence in the West Bank and Gaza.

In the West Bank city of Hebron, a soldier was injured when struck on the head by a stone. The army ordered the city closed to journalists and imposed a total curfew.

Although government officials continued to say that calm was being restored, there were signs that the trouble would persist.

A new clandestine leaflet by the so-called Uprising Committee, which is thought to be setting the broad policy for the local leaders of the unrest--if not directing the day-to-day activities--called Thursday for general strikes to be held Saturday and Sunday. If the strikes are observed, all Arab shops in the West Bank and Gaza will shut down and Arab workers will not report for work in the occupied territories and Israel proper.

The leaflet, the sixth issued since the violence began, also said that merchants had refused to pay taxes collected on goods sold during the limited hours when the Uprising Committee allows stores to operate.

And the leaflet called for demonstrations to continue, although, unlike past directives, it did not specify any particular action or call for intensified violence on special days.