A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| 2006 Lebanon War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Israeli–Lebanese conflict, the Iran–Israel proxy conflict and the war on terror | |||||||
  Left: Dust rises after the impact of two bombs dropped during an IAF airstrike on Tyre, Lebanon. Right: Smoke after a rocket launched by Hezbollah hit near the Bnai Zion Medical Center in Haifa, Israel | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Israel |
 Lebanon | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Ehud Olmert (Prime Minister of Israel) Amir Peretz Dan Halutz Moshe Kaplinsky Udi Adam Eliezer Shkedi David Ben-Besht |
Michel Sleiman | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Up to 10,000 soldiers by 2 August;[12] 30,000 soldiers in the last few days[13] |
Up to 1,000 (south of the Litani River)[14][15] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
Israel Defense Forces: 2 dead[29] |
Hezbollah fighters: Amal militia: 17 dead LCP militia: 12 dead PFLP-GC militia: 2 dead Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces: 43 dead[1] Foreign civilians: 5 dead 12 wounded[38] | ||||||
|
* The Lebanese government did not differentiate between civilians and combatants in death toll figures. For total casualty figures, see: Casualties of the 2006 Lebanon War | |||||||
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War[39] and known in Lebanon as the July War[1] (Arabic: حرب تموز, Ḥarb Tammūz) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War (Hebrew: מלחמת לבנון השנייה, Milhemet Levanon HaShniya),[40] was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. Due to unprecedented Iranian military support to Hezbollah before and during the war,[41] some consider it the first round of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, rather than a continuation of the Arab–Israeli conflict.[42]
The conflict was precipitated by the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid. On 12 July 2006, Hezbollah fighters fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence.[43] The ambush left three soldiers dead. Two Israeli soldiers were captured and taken by Hezbollah to Lebanon.[43][44] Five more were killed in Lebanon, in a failed rescue attempt. Hezbollah demanded the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel in exchange for the release of the abducted soldiers.[45] Israel refused and responded with airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in Lebanon. Israel attacked both Hezbollah military targets and Lebanese civilian infrastructure, including Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport.[46] The IDF launched a ground invasion of Southern Lebanon. Israel also imposed an air-and-naval blockade.[47] Hezbollah then launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the IDF in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions.[48]
The conflict is believed to have killed between 1,191 and 1,300 Lebanese people,[49][50][51][52] and 165 Israelis.[53] It severely damaged Lebanese civil infrastructure, and displaced approximately one million Lebanese[54] and 300,000–500,000 Israelis.[55][56][57]
On 11 August 2006, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (UNSCR 1701) in an effort to end the hostilities. The resolution, which was approved by both the Lebanese and Israeli governments the following days, called for disarmament of Hezbollah, for withdrawal of the IDF from Lebanon, and for the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces and an enlarged United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the south. UNIFIL was given an expanded mandate, including the ability to use force to ensure that their area of operations was not used for hostile activities, and to resist attempts by force to prevent them from discharging their duties.[58] The Lebanese Army began deploying in Southern Lebanon on 17 August 2006. The blockade was lifted on 8 September 2006.[59] On 1 October 2006, most Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon, although the last of the troops continued to occupy the border-straddling village of Ghajar.[60] In the time since the enactment of UNSCR 1701 both the Lebanese government and UNIFIL have stated that they will not disarm Hezbollah.[61][62][63] The remains of the two captured soldiers, whose fates were unknown, were returned to Israel on 16 July 2008 as part of a prisoner exchange. Both Hezbollah and the Israeli government claimed victory,[64] while the Winograd Commission deemed the war a missed opportunity for Israel.[65]
Background
Cross-border attacks from southern Lebanon into Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) dated as far back as 1968, and followed the Six-Day War; the area became a significant base for attacks following the arrival of the PLO leadership and its Fatah brigade following their 1971 expulsion from Jordan. Starting about this time, increasing demographic tensions related to the Lebanese National Pact, which had divided governmental powers among religious groups throughout the country 30 years previously, began running high and led in part to the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990).
Concurrently, Syria began a 29-year military occupation in 1976. During the 1978 South Lebanon conflict, Israel failed to stem the Palestinian attacks in the long run. In the 1982 Lebanon War, Israel invaded the country again and forcibly expelled the PLO.[66] Israel withdrew to a borderland buffer zone in southern Lebanon, held with the aid of proxy militants in the South Lebanon Army (SLA).[67]
The invasion also led to the conception of a new Shi'a militant group, which in 1985, established itself politically under the name Hezbollah, and declared an armed struggle to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.[68][69] When the Lebanese Civil War ended and other warring factions agreed to disarm, both Hezbollah and the SLA refused. Ten years later, Israel withdrew from South Lebanon to the UN-designated and internationally recognized Blue Line border in 2000.[70]
The withdrawal also led to the immediate collapse of the SLA, and Hezbollah quickly took control of the area. Later, citing continued Israeli control of the Shebaa farms region and the internment of Lebanese prisoners in Israel, Hezbollah intensified its cross-border attacks, and used the tactic of seizing soldiers from Israel as leverage for a prisoner exchange in 2004.[71][72] All told, from summer 2000, after the Israeli withdrawal, until summer 2006, Hezbollah conducted approximately 200 attacks on Israel—most of them artillery fire, some raids and some via proxies inside Israel. In these attacks, including the attack that precipitated the Israeli response that developed into the war, 31 Israelis were killed and 104 were wounded.[citation needed]
In August 2006, in an article in The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh claimed that the White House gave the green light for the Israeli government to execute an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Supposedly, communication between the Israeli government and the US government about this came as early as two months in advance of the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the killing of eight others by Hezbollah prior to the conflict in July 2006.[73]
According to Conal Urquhart in The Guardian, the Winograd Committee leaked a testimony from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggesting that Olmert "had been preparing for such a war at least four months before the official casus belli: the capture by Hezbollah of two Israeli soldiers from a border post on 12 July 2006."[74]
Abduction efforts in the year prior to conflict
In June 2005, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) paratroop unit operating near the Shebaa Farms engaged three Lebanese it identified as Hezbollah special force members, killing one. Videotapes recovered by the paratroopers contained footage of the three recording detailed accounts of the area.[75]
Over the following 12 months, Hezbollah made three unsuccessful attempts to abduct Israeli soldiers. On 21 November 2005, a number of Hezbollah special forces attempted to attack an Israeli outpost in Ghajar, a village straddling the border between Lebanon and the Golan Heights. The outpost had been deserted following an intelligence warning, and three of the Hezbollah militants were killed when Israeli sniper David Markovich shot a rocket-propelled grenade they were carrying, causing it to explode. From his sniper position, Markovich shot and killed a fourth gunman shortly thereafter.[75][76]
Timeline
Hezbollah cross-border raid
At around 9 am local time on 12 July 2006, Hezbollah launched diversionary rocket attacks toward Israeli military positions near the coast and near the border village of Zar'it[77] as well as on the Israeli town of Shlomi and other villages.[78] Five civilians were injured.[79] Six Israeli military positions were fired on, and the surveillance cameras knocked out.[80]
At the same time, a Hezbollah ground contingent infiltrated the border into Israel through a "dead zone" in the border fence, hiding in an overgrown wadi. They attacked a patrol of two Israeli Humvees patrolling the border near Zar'it, using pre-positioned explosives and anti-tank missiles, killing three soldiers, injuring two, and capturing two soldiers (First Sergeant Ehud Goldwasser and Sergeant First Class Eldad Regev).[77][81]
In response to the Hezbollah feint attacks, the IDF conducted a routine check of its positions and patrols, and found that contact with two jeeps was lost. A rescue force was immediately dispatched to the area, and confirmed that two soldiers were missing after 20 minutes. A Merkava Mk III tank, an armored personnel carrier, and a helicopter were immediately dispatched into Lebanon. The tank hit a large land mine, killing its crew of four. Another soldier was killed and two lightly injured by mortar fire as they attempted to recover the bodies.[77][80]
Hezbollah named the attack "Operation Truthful Promise" after leader Hassan Nasrallah's public pledges over the prior year and a half to seize Israeli soldiers and swap them for four Lebanese held by Israel:
- Samir Kuntar (a Lebanese citizen captured during an attack in 1979, convicted by Israel of murdering civilians and a police officer);
- Nasim Nisr (an Israeli-Lebanese citizen whom Israel tried and convicted for spying);
- Yahya Skaf (a Lebanese citizen whom Hezbollah claims was arrested in Israel; Israel states that he was killed in action);[82][83]
- Ali Faratan (another Lebanese citizen whom Hezbollah claimed to be held in Israel, believed to have been shot at sea.).[84]
Nasrallah claimed that Israel had broken a previous deal to release these prisoners, and since diplomacy had failed, violence was the only remaining option.[82] Nasrallah declared that "no military operation will result in rescuing these prisoners... The only method, as I indicated, is that of indirect negotiations and a swap ".[82]
Israeli response
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the seizure of the soldiers as an "act of war" by the sovereign state of Lebanon,[85][86] stating that "Lebanon will bear the consequences of its actions"[87] and promising a "very painful and far-reaching response."[88] Israel blamed the Lebanese government for the raid, as it was carried out from Lebanese territory.[89] Hezbollah had two ministers serving in the Lebanese cabinet at that time.[90]
In response, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora denied any knowledge of the raid and stated that he did not condone it.[91][92] An emergency meeting of the Lebanese government reaffirmed this position.[93]
The Israel Defense Forces attacked targets within Lebanon with artillery and airstrikes hours before the Israeli Cabinet met to discuss a response. The targets consisted of bridges and roads in Lebanon, which were hit to prevent Hezbollah from transporting the abductees. An Israeli airstrike also destroyed the runways of Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport.[94] Forty-four civilians were killed.[1] The Israeli Air Force also targeted Hezbollah's long-range rocket-and-missile stockpiles, destroying many of them on the ground in the first days of the war.[95][96] Many of Hezbollah's longer-range rocket launchers were destroyed within the first hours of the Israeli attack.[80]
Later that same day (12 July 2006), the Cabinet decided to authorize the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister and their deputies to pursue the plan which they had proposed for action within Lebanon. Prime Minister Olmert officially demanded that the Israel Defense Forces avoid civilian casualties whenever possible.[97] Israel's chief of staff Dan Halutz said, "if the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years"[98] while the head of Israel's Northern Command Udi Adam said, "this affair is between Israel and the state of Lebanon. Where to attack? Once it is inside Lebanon, everything is legitimate—not just southern Lebanon, not just the line of Hezbollah posts."[98]
On 12 July 2006, the Israeli Cabinet promised that Israel would "respond aggressively and harshly to those who carried out, and are responsible for, today's action".[99] The Cabinet's communiqué stated, in part, that the "Lebanese Government responsible for the action that originated on its soil."[99] A retired Israeli Army Colonel explained that the rationale behind the attack was to create a rift between the Lebanese population and Hezbollah supporters by exacting a heavy price from the elite in Beirut.[100]
On 16 July, the Israeli Cabinet released a communiqué explaining that, although Israel had engaged in military operations within Lebanon, its war was not against the Lebanese government. The communiqué stated: "Israel is not fighting Lebanon but the terrorist element there, led by Nasrallah and his cohorts, who have made Lebanon a hostage and created Syrian- and Iranian-sponsored terrorist enclaves of murder."[101]
When asked in August about the proportionality of the response, Prime Minister Olmert stated that the "war started not only by killing eight Israeli soldiers and abducting two but by shooting Katyusha and other rockets on the northern cities of Israel on that same morning. Indiscriminately." He added "no country in Europe would have responded in such a restrained manner as Israel did."[102]
Israeli air and artillery attacks
During the first day of the war the Israeli Air Force, artillery and navy conducted more than 100 attacks mainly against Hezbollah bases in south Lebanon, among them the regional headquarters in Yatar. Five bridges across the Litani and Zahrani rivers were also destroyed, reportedly to prevent Hezbollah from transferring the abducted soldiers to the north.[103]
Attacks from land, sea and air continued in the following days. Among the targets hit were the Hezbollah headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut as well as the offices and homes of the leadership, the compounds of al-Manar TV station and al-Nour radio station, and the runways and fuel depots of the Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut. Also targeted were Hezbollah bases, weapons depots and outposts as well as bridges, roads and petrol stations in south Lebanon.[104][105] Forty-four civilians were killed throughout the day.[1]
It was later reported that the Israel Air Force after midnight, 13 July, attacked and destroyed 59 stationary medium-range Fajr rocket launchers positioned throughout southern Lebanon. Operation Density allegedly only took 34 minutes to carry out but was the result of six years of intelligence gathering and planning. Between half and two-thirds of Hezbollah medium-range rocket capability was estimated by the IDF to have been wiped out. According to Israeli journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff the operation was "Israel's most impressive military action" and a "devastating blow for Hezbollah". In the coming days IAF allegedly also attacked and destroyed a large proportion of Hezbollah's long range Zelzal-2 missiles.[106]
"All the long-range rockets have been destroyed," chief of staff Halutz allegedly told the Israeli government, "We've won the war."[107]
American officials claimed that the Israelis overstated the effectiveness of the air war against Hezbollah and cited the failure to hit any of the Hezbollah leaders in spite of dropping twenty-three tons of high explosives in a single raid on the Beirut Southern suburbs of Dahiya.[108] The Israeli assessments are "too large," said one US official.[109] Al-Manar TV station only went dark for two minutes after the strike before it was back into the air. The TV station was bombed 15 times during the war but never faltered after the first hiccup.[110]
According to military analyst William Arkin there is "little evidence" that the Israeli Air Force even attempted, much less succeeded in, wiping out the medium- and long-range-rocket capability in the first days of the war. He dismissed the whole claim as an "absurdity" and a "tale".[111] Benjamin Lambeth, however, insisted that it was far-fetched to suggest that the "authoritative Israeli leadership pronouncements" were not based on facts. He admitted however that there was "persistent uncertainty" surrounding the "few known facts and figures" concerning the alleged attacks.[112] Anthony Cordesman believed that IAF probably destroyed most medium- and long-range missiles in the first two days of the war but acknowledged that these claims "have never been validated or described in detail."[113]
Hezbollah long remained silent on the question of its rockets, but on the sixth anniversary of the war, chairman Hassan Nasrallah asserted that Israel had missed them, claiming that Hezbollah had known about Israeli intelligence gathering and had managed to secretly move its platforms and launchers in advance.[114]
During the war the Israeli Air Force flew 11,897 combat missions, which was more than the number of sorties during the 1973 October War (11,223) and almost double the number during the 1982 Lebanon War (6,052).[115]
The Israeli artillery fired 170,000 shells, more than twice the number fired in the 1973 October War.[116] A senior officer in the IDF Armored Corps told Haaretz that he would be surprised if it turned out that even five Hezbollah fighters had been killed by the 170,000 shells fired.[117]
The Israeli Navy fired 2,500 shells.[118]
The combined effect of the massive air and artillery bombardment on Hezbollah capacity to fire short-range Katyusha rockets on northern Israel was very meager. According to the findings of the post-war military investigations the IDF shelling succeeded only in destroying about 100 out of 12,000 Katyusha launchers. The massive fire led to a severe shortage of ammunition towards the end of the war.[119]
Northern command had prepared a list before the war on potential Hezbollah targets, identified by the Israeli intelligence, to be struck in case of renewed hostilities. By the fourth day of the war the IDF ran out of targets, as all the 83 targets on the list had already been hit.[120] A high-ranking IDF officer told reporters off the record that the Israeli chief of staff Dan Halutz had ordered the air force to destroy ten 12-story buildings in the Southern suburbs of Beirut for every rocket that fell on Haifa. The statement was denied by the IDF spokesperson.[121]
Large parts of the Lebanese civilian infrastructure, however, were destroyed, including 640 kilometres (400 miles) of roads, 73 bridges, and 31 other targets such as Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, electrical facilities, 25 fuel stations, 900 commercial structures, up to 350 schools and two hospitals, and 15,000 homes. Some 130,000 more homes were damaged.[122][123][124][125]
Hezbollah rocket attacks
On 16 July, eight employees of the Israel Railways were killed by direct rocket hits on the Haifa train depot.[55] Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah defended the attacks, saying that Hezbollah initially had aimed its rockets on "military sites only". But since Israel, he said, had systematically bombed civilian targets he felt that Hezbollah had no choice but to answer in kind and target Israeli cities.[126]
The attack on the Haifa depot was not the first civilian target to be hit by Hezbollah. Civilians in the border communities were hurt in the initial cover fire on IDF positions for the cross-border raid. Two Israeli civilians were killed in an attack near the air force base at Mount Meron on 14 July. Since Hezbollah rockets were not very accurate it is unclear whether civilians were intentionally targeted in these attacks. After the attack on Haifa, however, Hezbollah made no attempt to cover this fact. According to a Human Rights Watch study civilian Israeli targets were mentioned four times as often in official Hezbollah war time communiques as was military targets.[127]
Hezbollah TV station al-Manar warned both in Arabic and Hebrew specific Israeli communities for future rocket attacks.[128] Similarly Hezbollah sent text messages to warn Israeli residents to evacuate their homes to avoid being targeted by rocket attacks.[129]
Israel published an alleged range card for upgraded Grad rocket launcher placed outside the village of Shihin in the Western sector of South Lebanon, issued by the Artillery Department of the elite Nasr Unit of Hezbollah. This list included 91 targets, 56 of whom were civilian and 27 were IDF posts or bases. The military targets had three-digit reference numbers while civilian targets had double-digit numbers.[130]
During the war, the Hezbollah rocket force fired between 3,970 and 4,228 rockets at a rate of more than 100 per day, unprecedented since the Iran–Iraq War.[131][132] About 95% of these were 122 mm (4.8 in) Katyusha artillery rockets, which carried warheads up to 30 kg (66 lb) and had a range of up to 30 km (19 mi).[132][133] An estimated 23% of these rockets hit cities and built-up areas across northern Israel, while the remainder hit open areas.[118][131][132]
Cities hit were Haifa, Hadera, Nazareth, Tiberias, Nahariya, Safed, Shaghur, Afula, Kiryat Shmona, Beit She'an, Karmiel, Acre, and Ma'alot-Tarshiha, as well as dozens of towns, kibbutzim, moshavim, and Druze and Israeli-Arab villages. The northern West Bank was also hit.[118][131][132][134][135][136][137]
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered commanders to prepare civil defense plans. One million Israelis had to stay near or in bomb shelters or security rooms, with some 250,000 civilians evacuating the north and relocating to other areas of the country.[132]
After the high number of Lebanese civilian casualties in the Qana airstrike, Israel announced a unilateral freeze in its air attacks on Lebanon. Hezbollah then halted its own rocket attacks on Israel. When Israel resumed its air attacks on Lebanon, Hezbollah followed suit and recommenced rocket attacks on Israeli targets.[138]
Hezbollah rocket attacks also targeted and succeeded in hitting military targets in Israel. The Israeli military censorship was, however, very strict and explicitly forbade Israel-based media from reporting such incidents. The wartime instruction to media stated that "The Military Censor will not approve reports on missile hits at IDF bases and/or strategic facilities."[139] A notable exception was the rocket attack 6 August, on a company of IDF reservists assembling in the border community of Kfar Giladi, which killed twelve soldiers and wounded several others. Initially Israel did not confirm that the victims were military but eventually relented.
On 6 August, two elderly Arab women in Haifa were killed, and an Arab man was mortally wounded, by Hezbollah rocket fire.[55] The day after Hezbollah leader Nasrallah appealed to Haifa's Arab community to leave the city so as not be hurt.[140]
After the initial Israeli response, Hezbollah declared an all-out military alert. Hezbollah was estimated to have 13,000 missiles at the beginning of the conflict.[141] Israeli newspaper Haaretz described Hezbollah as a trained, skilled, well-organized, and highly motivated infantry that was equipped with the cream of modern weaponry from the arsenals of Syria, Iran, Russia, and China.[142] Hezbollah's satellite TV station Al-Manar reported that the attacks had included a Fajr-3 and a Ra'ad 1, both liquid-fuel missiles developed by Iran.[143][144]
Ground war
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Hezbollah engaged in guerrilla warfare with IDF ground forces, fighting from well-fortified positions, often in urban areas, and attacking with small, well-armed units. Hezbollah fighters were highly trained, and were equipped with flak jackets, night-vision goggles, communications equipment, and sometimes with Israeli uniforms and equipment. An Israeli soldier who participated in the war said that Hezbollah fighters were "nothing like Hamas or the Palestinians. They are trained and highly qualified. All of us were kind of surprised."[145]
During engagements with the IDF, Hezbollah concentrated on inflicting losses on the IDF, believing an unwillingness to absorb steady losses to be Israel's strategic weakness.[146]
Hezbollah countered IDF armor through the use of sophisticated Iranian-made anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). According to Merkava tank program administration, 52 Merkava main battle tanks were damaged (45 of them by different kinds of ATGM), missiles penetrated 22 tanks, but only 5 tanks were destroyed, one of them by an improvised explosive device (IED). The Merkava tanks that were penetrated were predominantly Mark II and Mark III models, but five Mark IVs were also penetrated. All but two of these tanks were rebuilt and returned to service.[118]
The IDF declared itself satisfied with the Merkava Mark IV's performance during the war. Hezbollah caused additional casualties using ATGMs to collapse buildings onto Israeli troops sheltering inside.[118] As a result, IDF units did not linger in any one area for an extended period of time.[145] Hezbollah fighters often used tunnels to emerge quickly, fire an anti-tank missile, and then disappear again.[145]
On 19 July a force from the Maglan special forces unit seized a fortified Hezbollah dugout adjacent to the Shaked post; two IDF soldiers and five Hezbollah operatives were killed in the battle.[147]
Position of Lebanon
While the Israeli government initially held the Lebanese government responsible for the Hezbollah attacks due to Lebanon's failure to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 and disarm Hezbollah, Lebanon disavowed the raids, stating that the government of Lebanon did not condone them, and pointing out that Israel had a long history of disregarding UN resolutions.[92]
In interviews, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud criticized Israel's attacks and was supportive of Hezbollah, noting Hezbollah's role in ending Israel's previous occupation of southern Lebanon.[148][149] On 12 July 2006, PBS interviewed the Lebanese ambassador Farid Abboud to the United States and his Israeli counterpart. The interview discussed Hezbollah's connection to the Lebanese government.[150]
Israel never declared war on Lebanon,[151][152] and said it only attacked Lebanese governmental institutions which it suspected of being used by Hezbollah.[153] The Lebanese government played a role in shaping the conflict. On 14 July 2006, the office of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora issued a statement that called on US President George W. Bush to exert all his efforts on Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon and reach a comprehensive ceasefire.[154] In a televised speech the next day, Siniora called for "an immediate ceasefire backed by the United Nations." [citation needed]
A US–French draft resolution that was influenced by the Lebanese Siniora Plan and which contained provisions for Israeli withdrawal, military actions, and mutual prisoner release was rejected by the US and Israel. Many Lebanese accused the US government of stalling the ceasefire resolution and of support of Israel's attacks. In a poll conducted two weeks into the conflict, only 8% of the respondents felt that the US would support Lebanon, while 87% supported Hezbollah's fight against Israel.[155] After the attack on Qana, Siniora snubbed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by cancelling a meeting with her and thanked Hezbollah for its "sacrifices for the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon."[156]
During the war, the Lebanese Armed Forces did not engage in direct hostilities, but threatened retaliation if IDF troops pushed too far northward into Lebanon. In several instances, Lebanese troops fired anti-aircraft weapons at Israeli aircraft and attempted to disrupt landing operations.[157] During the first days of the war, Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said that "the Lebanese army will resist and defend the country. If there is an invasion of Lebanon, we are waiting for them." However, the Lebanese Army mostly stayed out of the fighting. According to a Time editorial, "to have stood up to the advancing Israeli armored columns would have been suicidal."[158] On 7 August 2006, the seven-point plan was extended to include the deployment of 15,000 Lebanese Army troops to fill the void between an Israeli withdrawal and UNIFIL deployment.[159]
Ceasefire
Terms for a ceasefire had been drawn and revised several times over the course of the conflict, yet successful agreement between the two sides took several weeks. Hezbollah maintained the desire for an unconditional ceasefire,[160] while Israel insisted upon a conditional ceasefire, including the return of the two seized soldiers.[161] Lebanon frequently pleaded for the United Nations Security Council to call for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. John Bolton confirmed that the US and UK, with support from several Arab leaders, delayed the ceasefire process. Outsider efforts to interfere with a ceasefire only ended when it became apparent Hezbollah would not be easily defeated.[162]
On 11 August 2006 the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved UN Security Council Resolution 1701, in an effort to end the hostilities. It was accepted by the Lebanese government and Hezbollah on 12 August, and by the Israeli government on 13 August. The ceasefire took effect at 8:00 am (5:00 am GMT) on 14 August.[163]
Before the ceasefire, the two Hezbollah members of cabinet said that their militia would not disarm south of the Litani River, according to another senior member of the Lebanese cabinet,[90] while a top Hezbollah official similarly denied any intention of disarming in the south. Israel said it would stop withdrawing from Southern Lebanon if Lebanese troops were not deployed there within a matter of days.[164]
Techniques
Cluster and phosphorus munitions
Both sides used cluster bombs during the conflict. Israel fired 4.6 million submunitions into dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon in 962 separate strikes, around 90% within the final 72 hours of the war, when the conflict already had been largely resolved by UN Security Council Resolution 1701.[165] Entire towns were covered in cluster bombs. The unguided and imprecise rockets were fired from mobile rocket launching platforms. To compensate for the inaccuracy of the rockets, the areas were flooded with munitions.[166] Israel claimed to have warned civilians prior to a strike, and that firing was limited to open areas or military targets inside urban areas.[167] Israel used advanced cluster munitions produced by Israel Military Industries, and large numbers of older cluster bombs, some produced in the 1970s, purchased from aging American stockpiles. These were fired by multiple rocket launchers, 155 mm artillery guns, and dropped by aircraft. As many as 1 million submunitions failed to explode on impact, lingering as land mines that killed or maimed almost 200 people since the war ended.[168] As of 2011[update], munitions were still causing casualties and being cleared by volunteers.[169]
Hezbollah fired 4,407 submunitions into civilian-populated areas of northern Israel in 113 separate strikes, using Chinese made Type-81 122 mm rockets, and Type-90 submunitions. These attacks killed one civilian and wounded twelve.[170]
Human Rights Watch "found that the IDF's use of cluster munitions was both indiscriminate and disproportionate, in violation of international humanitarian law, and in some locations possibly a war crime" because "the vast majority over the final three days when Israel knew a settlement was imminent."[165] After the ceasefire, parts of southern Lebanon remained uninhabitable due to Israeli unexploded cluster bomblets.[171]
Also phosphorus shells were used by the IDF to attack civilian areas in Lebanon.[172] The shells were originally designed to generate a smoke screen in a battlefield situation, but white phosphorus is also especially harmful to humans because its burning will continue inside the flesh. The shelling was investigated as a violation of international law.[173]
Psychological warfare
During the war, the IAF dropped 17,000 leaflets over Lebanon in 47 missions, and sent more than 700,000 computerized voice messages. Many of them contained caricatures of Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah leading Lebanon to ruin and making civilians suffer, showing them as puppets of Iran and Syria, and calling on civilians to help remove Hezbollah. Another leaflet addressing Hezbollah fighters told them that they were lied to by their leaders, that they were "sent like sheep to be butchered, lacking military training and without proper combat gear", that they could not hope to face "highly trained soldiers that fight to protect their homeland, their people, and their home", referring to them as "mercenaries" without the support of the Lebanese public, and urging them to run and save their lives. On 26 July, Israel dropped leaflets containing illustrations of nine tombstones with the name of a dead Hezbollah fighter on each one, in response to Nasrallah "deceiving" people on the number of Hezbollah casualties. Another leaflet urged Hezbollah fighters to stop bleeding and fighting for Nasrallah, who sat safe in a bunker, to stop fighting against Lebanese national interests, and to return to their homes and families. On 11 August, Israel dropped leaflets accusing Hezbollah of hiding its "great losses", and containing the names of 90 to 100 Hezbollah fighters killed. Israeli technicians also hacked into Al-Manar and broadcast clips, criticizing Nasrallah, showing the bodies of Hezbollah fighters, footage from Israeli raids and airstrikes, and captured Hezbollah equipment.[174]
Casualties and damage
Total Lebanese casualties
The Lebanese civilian death toll is difficult to pinpoint as most published figures, including those released by the Lebanese government, do not distinguish between civilians and Hezbollah combatants.[175] In addition, Hezbollah fighters can be difficult to identify as many do not wear military uniforms.[175] However, it has been widely reported that the majority of the Lebanese killed were civilians, and UNICEF estimated that 30% of Lebanese killed were children under the age of 13.[176] The Lebanese top police office and the Lebanon Ministry of Health, citing hospitals, death certificates, local authorities, and eyewitnesses, put the death toll at 1,123—37 soldiers and police officers, 894 identified victims, and 192 unidentified ones.[175] The Lebanon Higher Relief Council (HRC) put the Lebanese death toll at 1,191,[54] citing the health ministry and police, as well as other state agencies.[175] The Associated Press estimated the figure at 1,035.[175] In February 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported that at least 800 Lebanese had died during fighting,[177] and other articles have estimated the figure to be at least 850.[178][179] Encarta states that "estimates ... varied from about 850 to 1,200" in its entry on Israel,[180] while giving a figure of "more than 1,200" in its entry on Lebanon.[181] The Lebanon Higher Relief Council estimated the number of Lebanese injured to be 4,409,[54] 15% of whom were permanently disabled.[182]
The death toll estimates do not include Lebanese killed since the end of fighting by land mines or unexploded Israeli cluster bombs.[175] Between the end of the war and November 2008, approximately 40 people were killed and over 270 injured by cluster bombs.[183]
Hezbollah and other militias
During the war Hezbollah kept a firm lid on its casualties. Although it did sometimes announce casualty numbers in specific clashes, the party did not publish a comprehensive estimate for the duration of the war. A tally made by Associated Press counted to 70 dead Hezbollah fighters officially acknowledged by the party during the war.[175] Intelligence analysts Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry reported a few months after the war a total of 184 "Shiite martyr funerals" having been held in Lebanon since the war. They considered this number an indication of Hezbollah fatalities but warned that it could be revised upward in the future.[184]
Four months after the end of the war the deputy chairman of the Hezbollah Political Council Mahmoud Qomati for the first time presented Hezbollah's official estimate of its losses. He claimed that 250 fighters had been killed in the war.[175][185]
The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) specifically studied 94 IDF air, artillery, and ground attacks during the war that claimed the lives of 561 persons. Only 51 of these victims were Hezbollah combatants and about half of them were women or children.[186] HRW said it documented the identities of another 548 fatalities, bringing the total of identified Lebanese deaths in the war to 1109. It argued (as an extrapolation from those 94 attacks) that an estimated 250 of these were Hezbollah combatants and the remaining 860 were civilians.[187]
On 6 August Haaretz reported that the IDF estimated the number of Hezbollah fighters killed to 400, but added that "armies fighting guerrilla forces tend to exaggerate the fatalities of the enemy".[188] Matt M. Matthews military historian at United States Army Combined Arms Center, described these figures as "highly exaggerated".[189]
Lebanese officials cited in The Daily Telegraph estimated Hezbollah's losses at 500 killed. A UN official also estimated Hezbollah's losses at 500, though with not all of them being front-line fighters.[190][191]
By the end of the war, Israel claimed that more than 800 Hezbollah members had been killed in the war. In December 2006, Israeli government spokesperson Miri Eisin backed down from that claim, saying, "We think that it's closer to 600."[185] The Israeli Military Intelligence (AMAN) in November 2006 estimated that some 650 Hezbollah operatives were killed, while over 800 were wounded.[192]
Three years after the outbreak of war the Israel Foreign Affairs Ministry published a summary of the war which concluded that "over 600" Hezbollah fighters were killed in the war.[193]
IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror claimed that IDF had identified the names and addresses of 440 members of Hezbollah who were killed in the war. Based on this number he estimated that the total amounted killed in the war to between 500 and 700.[194]
According to the Yedioth Ahronoth Encyclopedia of the Second Lebanon War, the main reason for the discrepancy between Lebanese and Israeli estimates of the number of Hezbollah fatalities during the war (300 versus 700, respectively) was that the former included only Hezbollah military while the latter also included civilian members of Hezbollah.[195]
The Amal movement, a Shiite militia that fought alongside Hezbollah, suffered 17 dead. Armed elements of the Lebanese Communist Party suffered twelve dead. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, a Palestinian militia, lost two fighters in an Israeli air raid.[1]
Hezbollah commanders
Cordesman (2007) wrote that some IDF officers claimed that "significant parts of the key leaders and cadres were killed or captured but Israel has given no details of such successes since the war".[196]
On 19 July, a suspected bunker in southern Beirut was attacked with 23 tons of bombs.[197] Israeli intelligence leaked that 12 senior Hezbollah members had attended a meeting in the bunker and that among those killed was military chief Imad Mughniya.[198] Chairman Hassan Nasrallah himself was said to have been wounded in the attack.[199]
The IDF also claimed to have killed Abu Jaafar, the regional commander of central sector, in a clash in or air strike on Maroun ar-Ras.[200][201][202] Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, commander in South Lebanon was reportedly killed in a missile strike on a building in Tyre, where 13 civilians were wounded.[203] All of these supposedly dead Hezbollah leaders later appeared in public seemingly unscathed.[204] By the end of July, IDF claimed that about 40, mostly anonymous, "top-level commanders and officials" had been killed.[205]
IDF also named a few Hezbollah commanders who could not identified after the war, such as Jihad Attiya, said to be a logistical coordinator and Nour Shalhoub, a supposed arms transporter.[206]
In the beginning of August IDF reported that several "senior Hezbollah operatives" were killed in a commando raid on a building in Tyre.[207] Four years later IDF admitted that the senior Hezbollah figure, who was the target of the raid, was not killed but had escaped.[208]
During the war, Hezbollah never commented on these issues or simply offered flat denials. But shortly after the war (27 August), Hezbollah General-Secretary Hassan Nasrallah gave an interview to New TV, In this interview he conceded that between ten and twelve Hezbollah commanders had been killed in the war. None of the first or second levels of the leadership were harmed. But three commanders of the third level were killed; an operations officer in the Bint Jbeil axis, a logistics officer and a third commander involved in the military side of the party. In addition three or four town commanders and four or five village commanders were killed in the war.[209]
Nasrallah did not mention any names but the killed commanders were later identified by Hezbollah newspaper Al-Intiqad (and later republished by Hezbollah magazine al-Ahed). The three slain mid-level leaders were dubbed the "Three Knights" of the Islamic Resistance:
- Khalid Bazzi ("al-Hajj Qasim") from Bint Jbeil was chief of operations in the Bint Jbeil area, including Maroun al-Ras, Aynata, Aytaroun and Bint Jbeil. He led the operation where two Israeli soldiers were captured. He was killed 29 July 2006 in an air strike on a house in the old city of Bint Jbeil, together with two other Hezbollah members.[210] Bazzi's death or significant role was never commented on by Israel.
- Muhammad Qanso ("Sajid ad-Duwayr") from the village of ad-Duwayr was a commander in the Hezbollah Special Force, who replaced Bazzi as commander of Bint Jbeil sector. He was killed 11 August in an air raid outside the village of Beit Yahoun, about five kilometres to the north of Bint Jbeil.[211]
- Muhammad Sorour ("Jihad al-'Amili") from Ayta ash-Sha'b was a logistics officer. He was killed in an air raid on the village of Barish on 25 July.[212] Sorour's death was never commented on by Israel.
"Sajid ad-Duwayr" was the only dead Hezbullah commander correctly identified by IDF during the war. However, IDF did not learn his true identity (Muhammad Qanso) and got both the time and the place of his death wrong. He has not killed in the morning of 14 August and was not killed in either Bint Jbeil or Beirut's southern suburbs. And he was "a" commander, not "the" commander of Hezbollah Special Force.[213][214]
Muhammad Abu Ta'am was commander of Hezbollah forces in the town Bint Jbeil. He was killed in the same air strike as sector commander Khalid Bazzi.[215]
Squad leader Muhammad Dimashq ("Jawad Ayta") was shot 21 July, by an Israeli sniper in the battle of Maroun ar-Ras.[216]
Two Hezbollah commanders were killed in battles around Wadi Hujeir/Wadi Sulouqi. Rani Adnan Bazzi died in hand-to-hand combat, together with seven of his men, in the town of al-Ghandouriya, controlling the strategic wadi crossing. A further three fighters were wounded in the battle and one of them were taken prisoner by the IDF.[217]
Commander Ali Mahmoud Salih ("Bilal") fought singlehandedly further up the wadi, firing ATGM rockets at the advancing Israeli tanks. In the end he was severely wounded by a drone strike and died some time later from his wounds.[218]
Hezbullah prisoners
On 21 July, Israel Chief-of-Staff Dan Halutz presented one of the objective of the war as the "taking terrorists alive."[219] He repeatedly ordered Israeli troops during the war to capture Hezbollah bodies "to show to the media".[220]
On 24 July the IDF announced that it had captured two Hezbollah fighters in Battle of Maroun al-Ras, the first it had captured in the war. According to Brig.Gen. Alon Friedman the prisoners were held in Israel.[221][222]
Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=2006_Lebanon_War
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