After Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, low intensity conflict continued. Hezbollah established a fortified complex in southern Lebanon from which it launched missile strikes and cross-border guerilla raids into Israel.
On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah launched an attack into Israel, which killed three Israeli soldiers. The terrorists also kidnapped two Israeli soldiers who survived the raid, ostensibly to trade for jailed terrorists held by Israel. As the raiders fled back across the border, a force of Israeli tanks attempted to intercept them, but one was hit by an IED (improvised explosive device), which killed all four crewmembers.
Israel responded by launching a large offensive into Hezbollah territory in southern Lebanon. The offensive began with heavy air and artillery attacks that struck, not only Hezbollah targets, but Lebanese government targets as well. The Israelis apparently hoped that the Lebanese people would turn against Hezbollah when they saw the damage that the militants had brought to their country. The attacks actually had the opposite effect, as most Lebanese, including Lebanese Christians, were critical of Israel for attacking civilian targets.
Hezbollah responded to the Israeli attacks by launching repeated waves of rocket attacks against northern Israel. Some of these rockets reached as far as the Israeli port of Haifa, forty miles from the Lebanese border. These rockets were supplied by Syria and Iran and stockpiled over the previous years.
Unlike many previous wars, the Hezbollah War was primarily a standoff war using air and artillery attacks. For most of the war, Israel imposed an air and sea blockade of Lebanon and attacked the Beirut-Damascus highway to prevent a resupply of Hezbollah.
Ground operations by the Israelis were largely limited to operations near the Lebanese border and were aimed at specific targets, such as rocket launching facilities. An exception to this occurred late in the war when, on August 12, the Israelis launched an offensive that reached as far as the Litani River in southern Lebanon.
The war ended on August 14, 2006. Lebanon and Hezbollah accepted a UN ceasefire on August 12, and Israel accepted it the following day. Prior to that, Hezbollah had called for an unconditional ceasefire, while Israel had sought conditions, including the return of the two kidnapped soldiers and the disarming of Hezbollah.
UN Resolution 1701 was the basis for the ceasefire. It called for an Israeli withdrawal in favor of Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah was to be disarmed and to remove itself from the area south of the Litani River. The two Israeli soldiers were also to be returned unconditionally. Since the ceasefire was adopted, Hezbollah has not disarmed, and in fact, has replenished its supplies of missiles used in the war. It also has not released the two Israeli soldiers. UNIFIL, a UN peacekeeping force was deployed to southern Lebanon to create a buffer between Hezbollah and Israel.
Hezbollah did prove to be a formidable foe. It proved impossible for Israel to totally dislodge Hezbollah from southern Lebanon or to turn popular opinion in Lebanon against them. Hezbollah claims that 250 of their fighters were killed during the war. Other estimates range as high as 1,000. Precise figures are difficult to determine since Hezbollah guerillas do not wear uniforms.
Israeli forces lost 121 dead and 628 wounded. Additionally, 43 Israeli civilians were killed and 4,262 were wounded. The Israeli civilian casualties were mainly the result of the hundreds of Hezbollah missiles that struck northern Israel.
Lebanese civilians suffered badly during the war. Most estimates place Lebanese civilian casualties at just under 1,200. Some of these deaths were due to Israeli attacks on Lebanese infrastructure, but many were due to the fact that Hezbollah fighters often concealed themselves among civilians.
The Hezbollah War is also called the July War and the Second Lebanon War.
Sources:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/n ews_1919.aspx
http://www.mideastmonitor.org /issues/0609/0609_2.htm
http://www.historyguy.com/isra el-lebanon_war_2006.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Military_operations_of_the_200 6_Lebanon_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 2006_Lebanon_War
Showing posts with label lebanon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lebanon. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Arabs and Israelis IV: The First Lebanon War
Throughout the latter half of the 1970s, Lebanon had been embroiled in a civil war. Beginning in 1974, Lebanon's Muslim population, supported by the PLO, had been fighting Lebanon's Christians for control of the country. In June 1976, Lebanon's president requested Syrian intervention. Syrian troops occupied much of the country. When the Syrian presence failed to stop the fighting, the Syrians began arming the Christian militias. In October 1976, the Syrians accepted an Arab League mandate to keep 40,000 peacekeeping troops in the country.
While the fighting among sects continued, the PLO launched terror attacks into Israel, prompting Israeli retaliatory attacks on several occasions. At one point, Israel occupied Lebanon south of the Litani River. When Israel withdrew to a southern Lebanon security zone twelve miles wide, the UN deployed a force (UNIFIL) to keep peace in the area.
In August 1981, Prime Minister Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon began to discuss a plan for an invasion of Lebanon. The objectives would be to attack PLO targets as well as to assist Bashir Gemayel in becoming president of Lebanon. At the time, there was a ceasefire in place, and the PLO in Lebanon, while growing stronger militarily, offered few provocations from Lebanese territory. The PLO did, however, launch attacks from Jordan as well as attacking Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe. Israel responded with air strikes into southern Lebanon.
On June 3, 1982, terrorists attempted to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in London. Although Iraq was suspected in the attack, Israel retaliated with attacks on PLO targets in West Beirut and southern Lebanon. The PLO responded with rocket and artillery fire into Israel. On June 5, the UN passed a resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities.
On June 6, 1982, Israel launched Operation Peace for Galilee. The Israeli Defense Force quickly moved 40 miles into Lebanon, reaching the outskirts of Beirut. The Israelis swiftly cut the road between Damascus and Beirut, essentially cutting off the PLO forces from aid by Syria. Syrian aircraft did attempt to halt the invasion, but suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Israeli Air Force.
The Israelis found massive tunnels near the border. These tunnels were stocked with an impressive arsenal of weapons, from rifles to tanks, mostly of Soviet manufacture. Captured documents revealed that the Soviet Union both equipped and trained PLO terrorists.
The UN passed a second resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal on June 6. On June 8, the US vetoed an additional resolution demanding an Israeli withdrawal. The US also called for a PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. On June 26, the US vetoed another resolution that would have preserved the PLO as a political force.
Israeli aircraft and artillery attacked PLO forces inside Beirut for the next several weeks. On August 12, the sides agreed to a truce, negotiated by the US, which called for the withdrawal of both the PLO and Israel. A multi-national force made up US, Italian, and French soldiers would keep the peace and protect Lebanese civilians.
The Israelis believed that many PLO fighters were hiding in refugee camps near Beirut. This led to the tragic case of Sabra and Shatila. On September 16, 1982, Israeli troops entered West Beirut, violating the ceasefire, and transported 200 Phalange militiamen to two of the camps. The militia members remained in the camps until the morning of September 19 and killed somewhere between 700 and 3,000 Palestinians.
Israel set up the Kahan Commission to investigate the killings and, by Israel's own admission, none of the dead were members of any PLO unit. The commission held Ariel Sharon and Chief-of-Staff Rafael Eitan indirectly responsible and recommended that Sharon resign. Sharon did resign, although he remained influential in the Israeli government.
On May 17, 1983, Israel, Lebanon, and the United States signed an agreement ending the war. The agreement called for the removal of Israeli and Syrian troops. The Arab world viewed the agreement as a surrender. Syria refused to withdraw, but Israel withdrew its forces back to the security zone in August 1983, where they remained until 2000. Syrian troops remained in Lebanon until 2005.
On April 18, 1983, a suicide bomber attacked the US embassy in Beirut. The US responded with a naval bombardment of Druze militia positions. On October 23, 1983, a second suicide bomber attacked the US and French headquarters killing 241 US Marines and 58 French soldiers. This sparked a series of terror attacks and kidnappings of Americans that plagued Lebanon for the remainder of the decade. US troops left the country in 1984.
Also during this period, the situation in Lebanon deteriorated into civil war again. Violence flared between the various Christian and Muslim sects and the Syrians. The conflict continued until 1990, when Syria launched a major offensive that secured the country.
During the late 1980s, disaffected Shiites from a number of groups banded together to form Hezbollah. This new terror group gained the support of Iran and quickly became powerful. It would soon become a dangerous foe of Israel.
Sources:
http://www.answers.com/topic/ lebanese-civil-war
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~ samuel/lebanonwar.html
http://www.aim.org/publicatio ns/aim_report/1982/09b.html
While the fighting among sects continued, the PLO launched terror attacks into Israel, prompting Israeli retaliatory attacks on several occasions. At one point, Israel occupied Lebanon south of the Litani River. When Israel withdrew to a southern Lebanon security zone twelve miles wide, the UN deployed a force (UNIFIL) to keep peace in the area.
In August 1981, Prime Minister Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon began to discuss a plan for an invasion of Lebanon. The objectives would be to attack PLO targets as well as to assist Bashir Gemayel in becoming president of Lebanon. At the time, there was a ceasefire in place, and the PLO in Lebanon, while growing stronger militarily, offered few provocations from Lebanese territory. The PLO did, however, launch attacks from Jordan as well as attacking Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe. Israel responded with air strikes into southern Lebanon.
On June 3, 1982, terrorists attempted to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in London. Although Iraq was suspected in the attack, Israel retaliated with attacks on PLO targets in West Beirut and southern Lebanon. The PLO responded with rocket and artillery fire into Israel. On June 5, the UN passed a resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities.
On June 6, 1982, Israel launched Operation Peace for Galilee. The Israeli Defense Force quickly moved 40 miles into Lebanon, reaching the outskirts of Beirut. The Israelis swiftly cut the road between Damascus and Beirut, essentially cutting off the PLO forces from aid by Syria. Syrian aircraft did attempt to halt the invasion, but suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Israeli Air Force.
The Israelis found massive tunnels near the border. These tunnels were stocked with an impressive arsenal of weapons, from rifles to tanks, mostly of Soviet manufacture. Captured documents revealed that the Soviet Union both equipped and trained PLO terrorists.
The UN passed a second resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal on June 6. On June 8, the US vetoed an additional resolution demanding an Israeli withdrawal. The US also called for a PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. On June 26, the US vetoed another resolution that would have preserved the PLO as a political force.
Israeli aircraft and artillery attacked PLO forces inside Beirut for the next several weeks. On August 12, the sides agreed to a truce, negotiated by the US, which called for the withdrawal of both the PLO and Israel. A multi-national force made up US, Italian, and French soldiers would keep the peace and protect Lebanese civilians.
The Israelis believed that many PLO fighters were hiding in refugee camps near Beirut. This led to the tragic case of Sabra and Shatila. On September 16, 1982, Israeli troops entered West Beirut, violating the ceasefire, and transported 200 Phalange militiamen to two of the camps. The militia members remained in the camps until the morning of September 19 and killed somewhere between 700 and 3,000 Palestinians.
Israel set up the Kahan Commission to investigate the killings and, by Israel's own admission, none of the dead were members of any PLO unit. The commission held Ariel Sharon and Chief-of-Staff Rafael Eitan indirectly responsible and recommended that Sharon resign. Sharon did resign, although he remained influential in the Israeli government.
On May 17, 1983, Israel, Lebanon, and the United States signed an agreement ending the war. The agreement called for the removal of Israeli and Syrian troops. The Arab world viewed the agreement as a surrender. Syria refused to withdraw, but Israel withdrew its forces back to the security zone in August 1983, where they remained until 2000. Syrian troops remained in Lebanon until 2005.
On April 18, 1983, a suicide bomber attacked the US embassy in Beirut. The US responded with a naval bombardment of Druze militia positions. On October 23, 1983, a second suicide bomber attacked the US and French headquarters killing 241 US Marines and 58 French soldiers. This sparked a series of terror attacks and kidnappings of Americans that plagued Lebanon for the remainder of the decade. US troops left the country in 1984.
Also during this period, the situation in Lebanon deteriorated into civil war again. Violence flared between the various Christian and Muslim sects and the Syrians. The conflict continued until 1990, when Syria launched a major offensive that secured the country.
During the late 1980s, disaffected Shiites from a number of groups banded together to form Hezbollah. This new terror group gained the support of Iran and quickly became powerful. It would soon become a dangerous foe of Israel.
Sources:
http://www.answers.com/topic/ lebanese-civil-war
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~ samuel/lebanonwar.html
http://www.aim.org/publicatio ns/aim_report/1982/09b.html
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