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The 1982 Invasion of Lebanon, dubbed Operation Peace for Galilee (Shlom HaGalil in Hebrew), began June 6, 1982, when the Israel Defence Force invaded southern Lebanon purportedly in response to the Abu Nidal organization's assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, and to halt Katyusha rocket attacks on Israeli population in the northern Galilee region launched from Southern Lebanon. See also Operation Litani.

After attacking PLO, Syrian and Muslim Lebanese forces, Israel occupied southern Lebanon. Surrounded in West Beirut and subject to heavy bombardment, the PLO and the Syrian forces negotiated passage from Lebanon with the aid of international peacekeepers. The Sabra and Shatila massacre of Muslim Palestinian refugees by Christian militias allied with Israel, occurred during Israel's occupation of West Beirut.

Background

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanon became home to more than 110,000 Palestinian refugees displaced from their homeland. By 1975, they numbered more than 300,000 and the PLO had become a powerful force in Lebanon, playing an important role in the Lebanese Civil War. Continual violence occurred between Israel and PLO from 1968, peaking in Operation Litani.

On 10 July 1981, after a period of peace, the Israeli air force bombarded Palestinian targets in south Lebanon and later that day Palestinian elements fired artillery and rockets into northern Israel. Although the United Nations expressed "deep concern at the extent of the loss of life and the scale of the destruction caused by the deplorable events that have been taking place for several days in Lebanon," Israeli provocations continued from August 1981 to May 1982 during which there were 2125 violations of Lebanese airspace and 652 violations of Lebanese territorial waters . On 6 June 1982, Israeli forces under direction of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invaded southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee" using as a pretext the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador in London on 3 June by Hassan Said of the small Iraqi-supported Palestine National Liberation Movement headed by Yasser Arafat's opponent Abu Nidal. Prime Minister Menachem Begin had been informed by Israeli intelligence that the PLO was not involved in the attack on Argov, but withheld this information from his Cabinet. It later emerged that the invasion had been planned since the return to power of Begin and Sharon and that the United States had foreknowledge of the invasion plans. David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, had been insistent that southern Lebanon to the Litani River as well as southern Syria, Jordan and the Sinai should form "the boundaries of Zionist aspirations". .

Reasons for the war

Starting in 1968, Palestinian groups in southern Lebanon raided northern Israel, and bombarded Israeli towns with katyusha rockets. Since the range of these katyusha rockets was 40km, it was argued that an Israeli occupation of a 40km stretch of land would allow Israel to stop attacks on its northern town and villages.

Secondly, Israel argued it could derail the establishment of a base of operations for the PLO, from which they could mount assaults in the international arena such as the 26 December 1968 attack on an Israeli civilian airliner in Athens.

Another reason given for the invasion was as an intervention in the ongoing Lebanese Civil War to counteract Syrian influences in Lebanon, and possibly enable the establishment of a stable Lebanese leadership from the Christian population, which would strengthen a central Lebanese Army, restore security and agree to diplomatic relations with Israel.

Course of the fighting

Israel's objective was to push back the PLO militants to a distance of 40 kilometers to the north. The Israeli forces soon reached that target but were determined to drive the PLO from southern Lebanon once and for all. Tyre and Sidon (major cities in the south of Lebanon, still within the 40 kilometer limit) were heavily damaged, and the Lebanese capital Beirut was shelled for ten weeks, killing both PLO members and civilians.

The Israeli Air Force shot down many Syrian aircraft over Lebanon, (reportedly 80 kills, with no air combat losses) as well as performing ground attacks, notably destroying the majority of Syrian anti-aircraft batteries stationed in Lebanon. AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships were used widely against Syrian armor and fortifications. The IAF Cobras destroyed dozens of Syrian armored fighting vehicles, including many of the modern Soviet T-72 main battle tank.

According to the journalist Robert Fisk (p. 277, 282), phosphorus shells and cluster bombs that were sold to Israel by the United States under the condition they would not be used against civilians, were used against Lebanese civilians by Israel, causing heavy undousable burns and many casualties.

Later in 1982 an agreement was reached and American, French and Italian peacekeepers sent the PLO survivors to surrounding Arab states. Philip Habib, Ronald Reagan's envoy to Lebanon, provided an undertaking to the PLO that the Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps would not be harmed. However, the US marines left West Beirut two weeks before the end of their official mandate. After the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, newly appointed President of Lebanon, Israeli forces occupied West Beirut. The Lebanese Christian Militia, also known as the Phalangists, allies of Israel, massacred 700-3000 Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp.

Outcome of the war

Casualties

Estimations are that about 17,825 Arabs were killed during the war. There are different estimations about the portions of civilians killed. A Beirut newspaper An Nahar estimated that

• 17,825 killed during the invasion
  • Outside Beirut
    • Military personnel: 9,797 (PLO, Syria, etc.)
    • Civilians: 2,513
  • Beirut area: 5,515 (mil. + civ.)

About 675 Israeli soldiers were killed.

The security buffer zone

In August 1982, the PLO withdrew most of its forces from Lebanon. With U.S. assistance, Israel and Lebanon reached an accord in May 1983 that set the stage to withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon. The instruments of ratification were never exchanged, however, and in March 1984, under pressure from Syria, Lebanon canceled the agreement. In June 1985, Israel withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon, leaving a small residual Israeli force and an Israeli-supported militia in southern Lebanon in a "security zone," which Israel considered a necessary buffer against attacks on its northern territory.

Political results

Heavy Israeli casualities, alleged disinformation of government leaders and the public by military and political advocates of the campaign, and lack of clear goals, led to increasing disquiet among Israelis. This culminated in a 300,000 protestor rally in Tel Aviv, organized by the Peace Now movement, following the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre.

In addition, it has been noted that the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon on October 23, 1983, was a forerunner of the kinds of assymmetrical warefare experienced with increasing frequency in later decades. The US has repeatedly experienced the devastating impact which a small number of suicide bombers could have against a much larger force in many later events - from first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, to the Oklahama City bombing in 1995, to the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, to the second bombing of the World Trade Center in 2001, to the 2003 Iraq war.

Israel finally withdrew from the "security zone" in 2000, during the Prime Ministership of Ehud Barak. Israel continues to control a small area called "Shebaa Farms", which Lebanon and Syria claim to be Lebanese territory but Israel insists to be former Syrian territory with the same status as the Golan Heights, since they have captured it from the Syrians. The United Nations has determined that Shebaa Farms is not part of Lebanon. The UN Secretary-General had concluded that, as of 16 June 2000, Israel had withdrawn its forces from Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425 of 1978, bringing closure to the 1982 invasion as far as the UN was concerned.

Consequences

• From the standpoint of the Israeli Military, the invasion was a limited success, removing PLO presence from Southern Lebanon and destruction of its infrastructure, as well as increasing deterrence on other Arab terrorist organizations. The Syrian military was weakened by combat losses, especially in the air.
• However, the elimination of any opportunity of cross-border attacks for PLO forced it eventually to seek a political solution of the conflict with Israel.
• Increased erosion of the sacred cow status of the military in Israeli public opinion and disillusionment with its leadership, a process which is commonly held to be rooted in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War.
• The invasion is popularly held to be the major catalyst for the creation of the Iranian and Syrian supported Hizbullah organization, which replaced the vanquished PLO in Southern Lebanon.
• The formation of the South Lebanon Army, an allied Lebanese milita supported by Israel, that maintained a presence in South Lebanon until Israeli withdrawal in 2000.
• The Lebanese Council for Development and Reconstruction estimated the cost of the damage from the invasion at 7,622,774,000 Lebanese pounds, equivalent to US$2 billion at the time.

See also

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Sabra and Shatila massacre
• Palestine Liberation Army
• Lebanese civil war
• Operation Litani
• UN Security Council Resolution 425
• Siege of Beirut

• Lebanese history
• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Israeli history