OPERATION GRAPES OF WRATH

By Kevin Fedarko

At 10:30 last Thursday morning the telephone lines all over Beirut suddenly and mysteriously went dead. The glitch was probably caused by the city's notoriously fickle communication lines. But in retrospect, it seemed more like a sign that trouble was in the air. Literally in the air, it turned out: just off the coast, four Israeli helicopter gunships were loosing laser-homing Hellfire missiles and delivering Israel's first attack on Beirut in 14 years.

Operation "Grapes of Wrath," which was continuing at the end of last week, is a series of coordinated Israeli raids against Hizballah, the Iranian-backed militia that has been fighting the Israelis in south Lebanon since 1982. The crisis was touched off by two recent Hizballah rocket attacks on northern Israel--both of which were themselves provoked by Israeli episodes involving the death of several Lebanese civilians outside the nine-mile "security zone" that Israel occupies in Lebanon. On Thursday Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres ordered three strikes against the Hizballah in Lebanon, including the raid on Beirut in which the missiles smashed into a suspected Hizballah operations building.

The following morning, Hizballah sent another 40 rockets into Israel. That was just the excuse the Israelis needed to launch a much wider mission. In 60 villages just north of the security zone, residents were told to leave their homes in six hours. Then Israeli tanks and artillery began firing shells on suspected guerrilla targets across the area. By noon, 100,000 Lebanese were streaming north. Those refugees, the Israelis hope, will pressure the Lebanese government and, in turn, the Syrians, who have enormous leverage over Hizballah, to rein in the guerrillas.

In circumstances like these, the White House would typically urge all sides to show restraint. Not this time. Peres has a reputation for softness on security, and he faces a nasty election fight with the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu on May 29. The U.S. supports Peres, who has led the peace process, and it essentially gave him a green light to burnish an image of toughness.

Israel says it will continue until Hizballah signals it has had enough. Hizballah, however, may not cave in so easily. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the party's leader, has pledged to retaliate in a way that will "astonish Peres."

--By Kevin Fedarko. Reported by Lisa Beyer/Jerusalem and Lara Marlowe/Beirut

With reporting by LISA BEYER/JERUSALEM AND LARA MARLOWE/BEIRUT