Israeli strikes Threat to pact’

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 6

Israeli strikes Threat to pact’

NZPA-Reuter Tel Aviv. Katyusha rockets from south Lebanon fell on Israeli territory yesterday in the area of the border town of Kiryat Shmoneah, Israeli residents have reported. There was no immediate word of damage or casualties. Israeli forces immediately returned the fire across the border, the residents said. The exchange came after an Israeli air raid on Palestinian bases in Lebanon. These raids were a reprisal for a bomb which killed an Israeli woman and injured 15 other people in a crowded Tel Aviv market place on Tuesday. Egypt in a strongly worded condemnation of the air strike warned Israel that the attack could have serious consequences for the future of peace in the Middle East. The Egyptian warning came only minutes after the Parliament ratified the Egyp-tian-Israeli peace treaty. I In Beirut, Palestinian officials said that the Israeli (aircraft had inflicted scores 'of casualties when they ibombed the Lebanese coastal I town of Damour and the (nearby Tyre region south of Beirut. The officials said several houses were destroyed and “scores of Lebanese and Palestinians” were killed or wounded in the 20 minutes of pounding of Damour. Israeli planes had also hit “residential areas in the Tyre region,” further south. | After the Parliamentary (approval of the peace treaty (yesterday, President Anwar Sadat is expected to announce that Egyptians will vote in a referendum to (show their approval. The decison to put the treaty to a national poll was seen as an attempt by the Egyptian leader to answer Arab critics and show there was solid domestic support for the peace pact and his leadership. After a two-day debate, Parliament voted by 329 votes in favour and 13 against with one abstention for the agreement.

■I Final steps to make the! treaty effective, originally! planned for next Monday, , have been postponed. Both; : sides had been due to ex-1 : change instruments of ratification on April 16. 3 The semi-official news- i 'paper, “Al-Ahram,” said that 1 the treaty doc’uments would, , be exchanged on April 22 1 , after the referendum and the ■ end of Israel’s Passover holi-i , days. ; Earlier, Egypt sought to! defuse a mounting con-1 • troversy over the future off the Israeli-occupied Golan i Heights by saying a remark l on the subject by the Prime] ] Minister (Dr Mustapha Kha-! ' 111) had been widely mis- 1 . interpreted. , Some press reports quoted] ; Dr Khahlil as having told a ; closed Parliamentary com- ; mittee meeting last, week- ; end that any move by Syria ■ to recover the Golan Heights t would be an act of defence ; and that Egypt would stand - by it. Israel said it had sent pro- _ test notes to the United ] States and Egypt over Dr ' Khalil’s remarks, saying they ’ appeared to be a violation of I the Egyptian-Israeli treaty. 5 But the official Middle cl East News Agency said that IDr Khalil had been widely II misinterpreted and that 11 Egypt would only side with 11 Damascus if Israel refused • .Ito negotiate with Syria. I' — — .