World Notes Middle East

The Israelis living in the frontier town Qiryat Shemona knew that casualties from rocket attacks launched across the border in southern Lebanon would come sooner or later. Last week the inevitable happened. A single Soviet-made Katyusha rocket hit a school yard, injuring four children and one teacher. It was the second such assault on northern Israel in three days.

"Operation Peace for Galilee," Israel's controversial invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, was supposed to end such attacks. Last summer Israeli troops withdrew from most of Lebanon, and there is little appetite for another full- scale incursion. But for many Israelis, the wounded at Qiryat Shemona dramatically underscored the continued vulnerability of the northern border region. Just 90 minutes after the attack, Israeli fighter planes bombed two buildings near Palestinian refugee camps outside the port city of Sidon that were reputed to be headquarters for Fatah, the P.L.O. guerrilla faction. At least ten people were killed and 25 were wounded.