April 22, 1982

Israel's Cabinet voted unanimously today to withdraw from Sinai on Sunday, as required by the peace treaty with Egypt. Hours after the decision, the army moved against militant Jewish protesters in the northern Sinai town of Yamit, evicting them by force. In Cairo, the Egyptian Cabinet hailed the decision as an important step that alleviated concern in recent days about a possible hitch in the last phase of the Sinai withdrawal. (Page A14.)

The nine-month-old cease-fire between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization was shattered today as waves of Israeli planes attacked guerrilla positions south of Beirut hours after an Israeli soldier had been killed by a land mine in southern Lebanon. The jets pounded Palestinian-controlled villages south of Beirut. Lebanese Government sources said at least 23 people had been killed and an unspecified number wounded. There was no indication how many of the casualties were guerrillas and how many civilians.

The gross national product, the country's broadest measure of economic activity, fell at a 3.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter, confirming that the recession continued through March, the Commerce Department reported today. But the economic downturn, which started last July and has pushed unemployment to 9 percent, continued to slow the rate of inflation. A G.N.P. price index rose only 5.6 percent in the first quarter, the smallest increase in four years, following an 8.6 percent advance in the fourth quarter of 1981. Similarly the better-known Consumer Price Index rose at an annual rate of 3 percent in February, also much less than in recent months. The index for March will be announced Friday.

New factory orders for durable goods rose 1.9 percent in March, making it the first time since last summer that such orders have risen for two consecutive months, the Commerce Department reported today. As a leading economic indicator, the rise in durable goods orders for March was viewed by some economists as a hopeful sign that the economy might begin its recovery from the current recession in the next few months. Robert Ortner, the Commerce Department's chief economist, called the durable goods figures ''one of the more important indicators we have'' and said that he was encouraged by the March results.

A preliminary examination indicates that a .22-caliber shell casing found in the van of a New Jersey man was fired from the same gun that killed a Federal witness and three CBS employees, Police Commissioner Robert J. McGuire disclosed last night. The Commissioner said the casing also matched a spent shell that had been recovered in the car of a friend and former co-worker of the Federal witness. Police officials have said they believe that the friend, who disappeared in January, has been slain. Mr. McGuire said blood stains and other forensic evidence had been found in the van driven by Donald J. Bowers of Keansburg, who was arrested Monday in Kentucky. Mr. Bowers, 46 years old, has become the central figure in the investigation of the four slayings and the disappearance of the witness's friend. The New Jersey man, who is also wanted as a fugitive in another case, was returned to New York last night after waiving extradition. Escorted by two New York City detectives, he got off a Piedmont Airlines plane at Newark International Airport at 9:31 P.M.