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Israel-Lebanon Conflict—(1978-Present):
As
with many of the conflicts in the Middle East, the
ongoing war along the Israeli-Lebanese border is a
part of the longer and larger Arab-Israeli
conflict. In 1948, five Arab nations, including
Lebanon, invaded Israel in a vain attempt to
prevent the birth of the Jewish nation on land that
the Arabs felt belonged to them. The Arabs called
the land occupied by the Israelis "Palestine" and
those Arabs living there as "Palestinians." As a
result of this and subsequent outbreaks of war,
thousands of Palestinians fled to neighboring Arab
countries. Several Palestinian guerrilla armies
formed to fight a guerrilla/terrorist war against
Israel. Their attacks on Israeli targets prompted
retaliation on the host nations of Jordan and
Lebanon. Palestinian power became so great in
Jordan, that a civil war was fought in 1970,
resulting in the expulsion of Palestinian forces
from that nation. At this point, the Palestinian
resistance moved to Lebanon, a small nation located
on Israel's northern border. The newly
resettled Palestinian forces, led by Yasser
Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
had two important effects on Lebanon. First, their
ongoing cross-border raiding brought violent
responses from Israel. These retaliatory raids
caused death and destruction for the local
inhabitants of South Lebanon. Secondly, the large
influx of mostly Muslim Palestinians upset the
population balance between Lebanon's Christians and
Muslims. These two religious groups fought a civil
war in the 1950's, and an uneasy peace had existed
since. By 1975, tensions between the Lebanese
Christians on one side and the Lebanese Muslims and
the PLO on the other side, erupted into a bloody
civil war. The Lebanese Army and government
dissolved as rival Christian and Muslim militias
battled for control of their nation. This conflict
caused Lebanon's only two neighbors to intervene in
its affairs. Soon after the war's beginning, Syria
sent a 40,000 man-strong "peace-keeping" force into
Eastern Lebanon. Though officially a force for
peace, the Syrians soon took the side of the
Muslims and PLO and actively battled the Lebanese
Christian forces. Israel began aiding the
anti-Muslim forces with weapons and other
assistance. As the
Lebanese Civil War raged on, the PLO continued
attacks on northern Israel. By 1978, Israel decided
to invade Southern Lebanon, which was now almost
fully controlled by the PLO. Israeli Invasions and Incursions into
Lebanon --Israeli Invasion of Lebanon
(1978)--25,000 Israeli troops invaded southern
Lebanon on March 14, 1978 in a campaign to drive
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) out.
This attack was in response to PLO raids into
northern Israel from their bases in southern
Lebanon. After the 1970 Jordanian Civil
War, in which the PLO was driven out of Jordan,
southern Lebanon came under Palestinian control,
with Yasser Arafat's forces creating a virtual
'state-within-a-state." Their control became so
dominint, that southern Lebanon was nicknamed
"Fatahland," after al-Fatah, the name of Arafat's
main PLO faction. This Israeli military offensive
forced an estimated 285,000 people to become
refugees, with over 6,000 homes destroyed or badly
damaged. Between 1,100 and 2,000 Lebanese civilians
were killed. Twenty Israeli soldiers died, and an
unknown number of Palestinian fighters. The PLO
forces retreated ahead of the Israelis and
continued their attacks on Israel. Tactically, the Israeli invasion
was unsuccessful. Their target, PLO military units,
left the area. Israel had failed to prevent the PLO
retreat. As the Israelis withdrew in
June, 1978, they turned control of the occupied
territory over to the South Lebanon Army (SLA), led
by Major Saad Haddad, a renegade Lebanese Army
officer who set up his own militia. The
SLA served as Israel's proxy in south Lebanon,
often engaging the PLO in combat. An estimated 285,000 Lebanese
and Palestininian civilians became refugees due to
Operation Litani. Estimates of civilian deaths in
Lebanan range from 1,100 to 2,000. 20 Israelis
soldiers were were killed. The PLO suffered an
unknown number of casualties. 1981--In response
to PLO rocket attacks, Israeli forces began heavy
bombing of PLO targets in Lebanon. The United
States negotiated a cease-fire. 1982-- Operation
Peace in Galilee (June 6, Israel began its 1982
offensive into Lebanon in response to two specific
terrorist acts; the bombing of a bus in northern
Israel, and the assassination attempt on the life
of Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom,
Shlomo Argov. Calling this invasion "Operation
Peace in Galilee," (Galillee is the biblical name
for northern Israel), Israel invaded Lebanon up to
the outskirts of the Lebanese capital,
Beirut. While eventually allowing the
PLO to leave Lebanon, Israeli forces remained in
control of south Lebanon near the border until
2000, when the troops were withdrawn in order to
end the ongoing guerilla war with the Shiite
Lebanese militia called Hezbollah. 1993--Israeli
Forces launched Operation Accountability
(July 25-July 31, 1993), a week-long military
campaign directed at Hezbollah ( this conflict is
called The Seven-Day War by the
Lebanese). In June, 1993, Hezbollah
launched rockets against a settlement in northern
Israel, and then in July, 1993, both Hezbollah and
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) launched attacks which killed five Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers
in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon. Israel
decided to respond to these attacks by making
southern Lebanon an inhospitable environment for
Hezbollah. During Operation Accountability,
Israeli forces destroyed or damaged thousands of
houses and buildings, causing some 300,000 Lebanese
and Palestinian civilians from southern Lebanon to
migrate towards Beirut and other areas outside of
the combat zone. Israeli forces also targeted
Lebanese infrastructure, (power stations, bridges,
and roadways. This is a tactic that would be
repeated in future Israeli attacks on Hezbollah and
Lebanon. Hezbollah responded with more rocket
attacks on Israeli civilian targets. At least 118 Lebanese civilians
and two Israeli civilians died during this
operation. 1996--Operation
Grapes of Wrath (April 11-April 27, 1996)
--Israel's massive air and artillery attack on
Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon which
attempted to end shelling of northern Israel by the
Iranian and Syrian-backed Lebanese Islamic militia.
Israel forces launched 1,100 air raids and fired
nearly 25,132 shells at Hezbollah targets during
the sixteen-day offensive. A United Nations camp at
Qana, Lebanon, was hit by Israeli shelling, killing
118 Lebanese civilians who sought shelter there.
Nearly 640 Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel in
this time period, particularly the often-hit
settlement of Kiryat Shemona. Israel's ally and
proxy force, the South Lebanon Army (a mixed
Christian and Shiite Muslim militia under the
command of renegade Lebanese Major Saad Haddad),
also engaged in ground fighting with
Hezbollah. At least 350 civilians were
wounded in Lebanon , and 62 Israeli civilians were
wounded in Israel. 2006--In response
to the killing of three Israeli soldiers and the
capture of two others in July, 2006, Israeli troops
returned to Lebanon while air forces bombed nearly
40 targets in order to effect the release of the
captured soldiers. See also Israel-Lebanon/Hezbollah
War of 2006 Copyright
© 1998-2006 Roger A. Lee and History Guy
Media; Last Modified: 07.27.06 "The
History Guy" is a Registered Trademark. Citation Lee,
R. "The History Guy: The Israel-Lebanon
Conflict" http://www.historyguy.com/israel-lebanon_conflict.html Combat
Studies
Institute
--Operation Peace for Galilee.
From
Globalsecurity.org 1982
Lebanon
War -
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Operation
Litani
- Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. Operation Litani
was the official name of the
Israel Defense Forces 1978
invasion of Lebanon Israeli
Action in Lebanon
1978-1982--From
Country-Data From
Wikipedia: Hizbullah's
real goal is racist: To free the
Middle East holy lands of
Jews--By
Alan M. Dershowitz --Opinion
piece from the Christian Science
Monitor Bint
Jbeil: Hezbollah heartland
--BBC
article on a Hezbollah
stronghold Israeli
Losses (2006) Lebanese/Hezbollah
Losses (2006) 33
soldiers killed 95
soldiers wounded 2
captured soldiers 1
warship damaged 1
tank destroyed 19
civilians killed 418
civilians wounded 875
civilians treated for
shock as
of 7-27-06 423
Lebanese civilians
killed 1,100
Lebanese civilians
wounded 800,000
civilian refugees 22
Lebanese Army soldiers
killed 63
Lebanese Army soldiers
wounded 28
Hezbollah troops
killed as
of 7-27-06 PREDECESSOR:
(Related conflicts that occurred
before) Suez/Sinai
War
(1956) 1967
Arab-Israeli War (1967) War
of Attrition (1968-1970) 1973
Arab-Israeli War (1973) Jordanian
Civil War (1970) CONCURRENT:
(Related conflicts occurring at the same
time) Lebanese
Civil War (1975-1991) Syrian
Intervention in Lebanon
(1975-Present) U.S.
Intervention in Lebanon
(1982-1984) SUCCESSOR:
(Related conflicts that occur
later)
A chronicle of newer
and more recent conflicts and wars from
around the globe
A listing of wars
and war pages on the History Guy site
See
also
Israel-Lebanon/Hezbollah
War of
2006--*NEW*
Please cite this source when
appropriate:
Military
operations of the 2006
Israel-Lebanon
conflict
1948
Arab-Israeli War (1948-1949)
Israel-Palestinian
Conflict (1964-Present)