None of the military operations deployed by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon since 1978, including a years-long occupation, have brought calm and security to northern Israel.
How does the current campaign by Israeli forces in Lebanon compare to previous incursions?
Operation Litani (1978)
In March 1978, Operation Litani was the Israeli response to the “Coastal Road Massacre” in which 35 civilians were killed by members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who entered Israel from Lebanon.
In order to restore security in northern Israel, the target of the Israeli operation was the PLO bases in southern Lebanon. At its peak, it involved some 25,000 Israeli troops. Among them were most members of the 36th Division of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Parachute Corps.
During the fighting, clashes expanded to include operations on the Litani River, a key demarcation point in southern Lebanon.
With the withdrawal of PLO fighters, Israeli soldiers struggled to bring them into meaningful engagement. About 2,000 people from Lebanon and Palestine died in the operation until it ended in June, when peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), newly created by UN Security Council resolutions, the UN, were deployed and demanded Israel’s withdrawal.
Lebanon War (1982)
Despite Operation Litani, northern Israel did not regain tranquility and clashes between the PLO and Israeli forces near the border continued.
In June 1982, the Palestinian Abu Nidal organization shot the Israeli ambassador in London, seriously injuring him. An attack which served as a pretext for Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to accuse the PLO and launch Operation Peace in the Galilee with the aim of restoring security in northern Israel and destroying Palestinian forces and their infrastructure in the south from Lebanon.
More than 40,000 Israeli troops and hundreds of tanks entered Lebanon with the support of Israel’s Christian allies. Subjecting Beirut to a months-long siege, Tel Aviv hoped that these allies would become the pillars of a more pro-Israeli Lebanese government.
Some 19,000 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian civilians and fighters were killed in the fighting. Among them, 5,500 civilians from the west area of Beirut.
Israel secured the evacuation of the PLO from Lebanon under international supervision, but the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, the elected Lebanese president, triggered the Sabra and Shatila massacre in which 2,000 Palestinians were murdered by Christian Phalangists . According to the Israeli Kahan Commission’s subsequent findings, Israel had “indirect” responsibility for the massacre.
Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon (1982-2000)
Tel Aviv’s soldiers withdrew from Beirut, but for 18 years Israel continued to occupy southern Lebanon, primarily the area south of the Awali River.
Since 1985 and in alliance with the Christian paramilitaries of the South Lebanon Army [SLA, por sus siglas en inglés]Israeli forces focused their operations on the so-called security strip, which ran along the entire border and was between 5 and 20 kilometers wide.
The stated aim of the occupation was to guarantee the security of the residents of northern Israel, but after the demise of the PLO, the region became the center of a new conflict. On one side, the Israeli occupation forces. On the other, groups like Hezbollah, a newly created Shiite organization said to wage guerrilla warfare against Israeli soldiers.
Israel occupied significantly less territory than in previous incursions, but ultimately failed to restore security to northern Israel. It all ended in two days, when, in accordance with UN Resolution 425, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak ordered the withdrawal of Israeli forces in May 2000, triggering the collapse of the SLA.
The Israeli occupation and withdrawal had the obvious immediate beneficiaries of Hezbollah and its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, considered in Lebanon and other Arab countries as the architects of the expulsion of the Israeli army.
Second Lebanon War (2006)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched the Second Lebanon War after a complex Hezbollah operation on the border to kidnap Israeli soldiers and exchange them for prisoners. Olmert wanted to “change the equation” by forcing the expulsion of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon and restoring security to northern Israel.
“[Las FDI] “They planned small skirmishes, not a large-scale conventional military campaign,” Israeli academic Efraim Inbar said a year into a month of war. The intensity of Hezbollah’s resistance surprised the Israeli military, according to Inbar, who called “another strategic folly” on Israel’s part “overconfidence in its air power.”
The war began with a massive bombing campaign that included among its targets the Beirut airport, Hezbollah’s headquarters, and its rocket arsenals in Beirut; in addition to shuttles and militia posts in the south. The land raid began with 2,000 troops, a number that quickly increased.
This conflict is considered one of Israel’s most unfinished wars. The clashes ended with the unanimous approval of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, ordering the disarmament of armed groups, including Hezbollah, and all armed forces south of the Litani River, except of the United Nations Interim Force (UNPIL) and the Lebanese Armed Forces. But Resolution 1701 was never implemented.
Third Lebanon War (2023-?)
Immediately following Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah supported Hamas by launching missiles, mortar fire, and anti-tank shells at Israel from its positions in southern Lebanon. and the intensity of both sides.
In recent months, political pressure has intensified to restore calm and security in the north of the country so that 60,000 displaced Israeli citizens can return home.
In what now appears to be a complex and well-developed plan, Israel began its attacks on Hezbollah in recent weeks by surreptitiously delivering explosive communications devices to the group. Then came the assassinations of leaders in airstrikes, including Nasrallah.
Following an already known pattern, Israel launched border operations a week ago, announced as limited, to put an end to Hezbollah’s infrastructure. But they grew quickly, with up to four different Israeli army divisions deployed in the ground campaign. As I write these lines, the scale of the operation remains unknown, nor what its chances of success are compared to previous campaigns.
Since October 2023, at least 2,036 people have been killed in Lebanon and 9,535 others have been injured.
Translation of Francisco de Zárate
