MORE THAN 20 DIE
MORE THAN 20 DIE
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By Juan de Onis Special to The New York Times
May 17, 1974
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SAIDA, Lebanon, May 16—Israeli planes bombed and strafed
Palestinian refugee camps and suspected guerrilla hideouts in
Lebanon today in swift reprisal for the massacre of 20 Israeli
students yesterday.
By nightfall, with ambulances still racing from the refugee camps
to hospitals here, the casualties from the terror bombings had
reached 21 dead and 134 wounded, according to reports by official
Lebanese sources and the Palestinian Press Agency.
■ The Israeli jets, flashing out of, a hazy blue sky, struck at targets
from the foothills of Mount Hermon to this Mediterranean coastal
city in the heaviest air attacks ever carried out on Lebanon. A
Lebanese Defense Ministry communique said that 36 Israeli
planes took part in the first raid, which lasted 20 minutes. A second
raid by eight jets hit targets in southern Lebanon, the military said.
[The Israeli Government; following its usual policy, did not say
how many planes took part in the raids.]
The main attack struck at the Ein al Helweh camp, the largest in
Lebanon, on the southern side of this city, and at the Nabatieh
camp, 10 miles to the southeast.
Building Damage Severe
The attack on the Ein al Helweh camp, which holds more than
20,000 people, caused severe damage to the closely packed
shanties and cementblock houses where the refugees live, as well
as to nearby three‐story apartment buildings occupied by low‐
income Lebanese families.
The walls of three apartment buildings, each holding 18 families,
were shattered. The roof of one was torn off by two bombs that left
craters 20 feet deep in the dark clay soil. The apartments also had
gaping holes where rockets had hit:
The ground was littered with iron bedsteads, a sewing machine,
clothing and kitchenware. Electric and telephcine wires trailed on
the ground:
Standing amid the wreckage, a young man asked in brolien
English, “Why doesn't Kissinger come to see what the Israelis do
to Arab cilivilani?”
Sirens Wail in Beirut
Air‐raid sirens wailed twice in Beirut, Lebanon's capital, and the
airport was closed for more than an hour, but the Defense Ministry
said that only one bomb fell near the capitil, at the mountain village
Of Maaroufieh.
Other targets in the Lebaneie foothills of Mount Hermon, included
Kreibeh, Rachaya Fujar, Rachaya al Wadi, Manrounnah, and Daher
al Ahmer, the Defense Ministry said.
These are in, or near, the forested Arkub region, long ,a hideout and
staging area for Palestinian guerrilla groups operating along
Israel's northern border, near Syria.
Reports from the southern area said that roads and bridgei had
been bombed, indicating that Israel's Air Force was making good
on the threat of the Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan, that the
south of Lebanon would be made uninhabitable
if
Lebanon did not
repress Palestinian guerrilla forces here.
Israel says that the three Palestinian guerrillas who car‐, tied out
the attack on the school in Maalot, where the students were killed
yesterday, entered the northern Israeli town from Lebanon.
Denial by Lebanese
This is denied by Lebanese officials and by the Palestinian group
that claimed responsibility for the attack, the Popular Democratic
Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
They said that the three guerrillas were operating within Israel,
where they were underground members of the organization, which
is led by Nayef Hawatmeh, whose headquarters are Beirut.
Mr. Hawatmeh said at a news conference in Beirut today that the
main purpose of the Maalot operation was to disrupt the peace‐
making mission of Secretary of State Kissinger, who has been
trying to bring about a military disengagement between Israel and
Syria.
At Ein al Helweh, site of the main Israeli attack, there were many
Palestinian guerrillas car tying weapons. One, who seemed to be in
charge of evacuation of the buildings, was called Salah. He
identified himself as the area leader of Al Fatah, the major
Palestinian guerrilla organization.
He told several American journalists that they would not be
welcomed by the refugees at the camp, adjoining the apartment
flats.
“Tell your Government that Phantoms are very good against
innocent civilians,” the guerrilla leader said. He added: “We hate
the devil, Israelis and Americans, but today we hate the American
most.”
Position Explained
“What we don't understand is why in America and Europe our case
is not clear. Our land is occupied and when we fight to get our
homes back we are called terrorists. But when the Israeli bomb
civilians they are heroes to you.”
The tall, blue‐eyed guerrilla, who had a pistol at his hip but wore
civilian dress, reflected an anger that seemed to go beyond the
shock of the raid.
“Inside the camp, they hit a playground center for children who go
there after school and the families are still digging out bodies,” he
said.
The guerrilla leader said he had experienced Israeli air attacks in
Jordan, where the Palestinian fighters were active before King
Hussein's army drove them out in 1970 and 1971.
,
“The bombs they used today are the biggest yet,” he said.
Settlement Questioned
Speaking of a possible peace agreement between the Arabs and
Israel, the guerrilla said he opposed any settlement that would not
allow Palestinians to recover their homes.
“Even
if
all the Arab Governments sign a peace with Israel, we will
have to go on fighting until we get back what is ours,” he said.
As families picked through apartment ruins looking for belongings,
which they carried away by the armful, many were without shelter
tonight.
At the Saida regional hospital, an elderly doctor in a bloodstained
smock said in the emergency room that 50 wounded persons had
been treated, and that 11 had died. An ambulance pulled in carrying
casualties from Nabatieh. One was an old woman with a flowered
headcloth who was wounded in the leg. Another was a man in a
green fatigue uniform, such as the guerrillas wear, who was
unconscious and suffering an abdominal wound.
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