BAD NEWS, PART 2: A BOTCHED RAID IN LEBANON

By LISA BEYER/TEL AVIV

Stealing into enemy territory is always a risky venture, but Israeli military commanders didn't guess just how treacherous it would prove last week. In a botched special operation in southern Lebanon, Israel lost 11 elite commando fighters and a military doctor in a battle with local militias. It was the country's worst one-time loss in the 12 years it has maintained its "security zone" in southern Lebanon, a 5-mile-wide strip Israel occupies ostensibly to protect its northern border from attack. The debacle will undoubtedly sharpen opposition within Israel to continuing that presence.

The naval force that crept onto the Lebanese coast in the blackness of last Thursday night consisted of 16 men. Some of them swam ashore; the Lebanese found their wet suits and fins. At 12:41 a.m., on the outskirts of the town of Insariyeh, two miles inland, a pre-planted bomb suddenly detonated in the midst of the unit. Within seconds the Israelis were raked by machine-gun fire. Eleven died, and four lay wounded, leaving just one soldier unscathed and able to radio for help.

Soon, a rescue squad arrived by helicopter. Under heavy fire from Hizballah and Amal militiamen, as well as Lebanese army troops, the team evacuated all the commandos but one, who could not be found. An incoming mortar shell killed one of the rescuers, a doctor. A Lebanese woman and child caught in the cross fire were also killed, and six other civilians were injured, as were six Lebanese militiamen and two army soldiers.

Israel's retreat around 4 a.m. without the missing commando was an agonizing one: dead and wounded are always brought home, and the decision to leave someone went all the way up to the Defense Minister and the military Chief of Staff. The Israelis concluded that the soldier, who had been carrying explosives, must have been blown to bits. Later someone from Hizballah found parts of his body and offered to trade them for Arab prisoners held by Israel.

Just what the Israelis were up to outside their zone in Lebanon remained unexplained. Lebanese sources speculated that the Israelis intended to snatch Sheik Abdul-Amir Kabalan, who has a house in Insariyeh and is influential in Amal, one of the Shi'ite militia groups. Israel has carried out such kidnappings before, but military insiders downplayed this theory. They hinted instead that the mission was to plant explosive devices in the area, targeted either at a nearby Hizballah post or an Amal encampment.

The Israeli government is mystified as to how the invasion was discovered. One possibility is that Hizballah or Amal fighters spotted the commandos early on and quickly set up the ambush. But survivors say the assault seemed well planned, lending weight to the theory that the top-secret mission had been compromised, perhaps by a Lebanese collaborator used by Israel in the operation.

Israelis were shocked by the fiasco only a day after the latest bombings in Jerusalem. Comparing the two events, the Chief of Staff, Lieut. General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, reminded citizens that "battles are not tragedies. They are battles." Still, once the dead have been given their due, the calamity will serve as a powerful argument for Israelis who assert it is time to leave Lebanon. The Netanyahu administration says it will do just that if the government in Beirut will disband the militias and take responsibility for the security zone. Increasingly, Israelis are saying they cannot wait.

--By Lisa Beyer/Tel Aviv. With reporting by Aharon Klein/Tel Aviv

With reporting by AHARON KLEIN/TEL AVIV