Lebanon still proxy battleground, 50 years after Israel raid

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — It was a cold night 50 years ago when an Israeli commando team led by a man disguised as a woman infiltrated a posh Beirut neighborhood and shot and killed three top officials from the Palestine Liberation Organization in their apartments. The anniversary is little noted, but the April 10, 1973, operation has relevance today. The raid was one of the first times that Lebanon became the arena where Israel and its opponents would settle their accounts. It remains so 50 years later as highlighted by an exchange of rocket fire and airstrikes across the border between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Lebanon last week.