israel and lebanon

Much of the hate and fanaticism in the Middle East comes from Israel's abuse of its firepower against civilians.

BEIRUT (Apr 21, 1996 9:30 a.m. EDT) - Little did anyone suspect when Israeli commandos blew up 13 airliners at Beirut airport 28 years ago that it was to be the first of many Israeli military thrusts into Lebanon.
The history of Israel's wars against Arab guerrillas in Lebanon includes many military successes but few long-term gains in its bid to establish security on the Jewish state's northern border.

The current air, artillery and and naval bombardment, in its 11th day, is the latest attempt by Israel to stop attacks by Hizbollah guerrillas on its northern towns.

At least 154 people have been killed and hundreds wounded, including 102 refugees shelled at a U.N. base in the south.

The seeds of conflict were sown in 1948 when thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the war that followed the proclamation of the state of Israel.

Many settled in Lebanon. Their battle to return to "Palestine" was given fresh impetus when the bulk of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leadership moved to Lebanon after being ousted from Jordan in 1971.

Israel's first big incursion was in 1968. It said the attack on Beirut airport was a reprisal for an attack in Athens by Lebanese-trained Palestinian guerrillas.

In April 1973, Israeli elite troops, including present-day Foreign Minister Ehud Barak disguised as a woman, entered Beirut flats and shot dead three Palestinian guerrilla officials.

Israel said those targeted played a role in a guerrilla attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics a year earlier.

In March 1978, in retaliation for the killing of more than 30 bus riders in a raid by sea-borne guerrillas near Tel Aviv, Israel attacked PLO positions in south Lebanon and occupied a 10 km (six mile)-wide strip north of the Lebanese border.

About 1,500 people were killed, mostly Lebanese and Palestinian civilians.

Some of the Israeli forces pulled out, but not before handing over the area to allied Christian militiamen fighting Palestinians and Moslem leftists in Lebanon's civil war.

U.N. Security Council resolution 425 ordered the Israelis to leave. They refused. The United Nations set up UNIFIL, a 5,000-strong peacekeeping force to help restore Lebanese state authority down to the border. Israeli troops did not let it reach the border.

In 1981, PLO guerrillas rained Katyusha rockets into northern Israel and the border strip. Israel launched air raids on Beirut in retaliation, killing scores of civilians. A flurry of diplomatic moves prevented the conflict from widening.

But in July 1982, after months of calm on the border, Israel invaded Lebanon with the declared aim of routing Palestinian guerrillas. It cited as justification an attack that seriously wounded its ambassador in London.

Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon promised his army would stop after 40 km (25 miles) but it encircled Beirut, 40 km further north. After bombardments, PLO fighters agreed to leave the city.

About 20,000 people were killed, mostly Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. Israel lost hundreds of soldiers.

In September 1982, Israeli forces stormed west Beirut after pro-Israeli Christian leader Bashir Gemayel, who days earlier had been elected president, was assassinated.

Israeli troops ringing the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila allowed revenge-seeking Christian militiamen into the shantytowns. Hundreds of refugees were slaughtered and Israel was widely condemned.

Bruised by world outrage and hurt by mounting guerrilla attacks by Lebanese Shi'ite Moslem guerrillas, Israel, under Prime Minister Shimon Peres, pulled most of its forces out of Lebanon in 1985 and set up a 15 km (nine mile) wide occupation zone to stop cross-border attacks. But its continued presence stirred the resentment of local south Lebanese.

Israel then faced a more relentless enemy, Hizbollah (Party of God), whose pro-Iranian Islamist militants attacked its troops daily and were ready to die for their cause.

In February 1992, Israeli helicopter gunships rocketed the car of Hizbollah leader Sheikh Abbas Musawi, killing him, his wife and son. Rocket attacks into northern Israel followed, then Israeli forces stormed two villages north of the buffer zone.

U.S., U.N. and Iranian diplomacy led to a truce, but it crumbled after Hizbollah killed seven Israeli soldiers in July 1993 and fired Katyushas into northern Israel.

In response, Israel unleashed "Operation Accountability," a week-long air, artillery and naval blitz in which 130 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, died and 300,000 fled their homes.

It ended when a U.S.-brokered verbal understanding barred attacks on civilians on both sides of the border but did not mention guerrilla attacks against Israeli occupation troops.

Hizbollah pledged to rocket northern Israel every time Israeli shelling killed Lebanese civilians. It kept the promise, and on April 11, 1996, Israel launched "Operation Grapes of Wrath," its second blitz against south Lebanon and Hizbollah.