Israel Retaliates

The Israeli army reported last night that its forces had crossed into Lebanon for a "mopping-up operation" aimed at Palestinian terrorist bases along the southern border.

Sources in Washington said the U.S. government had learned earlier of the big troop and weapons movements toward the frontier and one high level source said, "It sounds like much more than a small raid."

A civilian exodus from the south was accelerated yesterday by fears of an Israeli raid in retaliation for the weekend Palestinian attack that killed 30 and wounded 80 Israeli citizens, sources in Beirut reported.

Last night's invasion followed Prime Minister Menachem Begin's vow Monday to "cut off the arm of evil" and to "do what we have to do."

President Anwar Sadat had urged yesterday, before the attack, that Israel refrain from retaliation in the first Arab denunciation of Saturday's raid.