Israeli officials have described incursions by ground forces into Lebanon as “limited, localised, and targeted”. However, it has not revealed how many troops have crossed the border and how deep into Lebanese territory they have advanced.
Israel has added infantry and armoured brigades from the 36th Division and an artillery brigade to commando units which entered Lebanon on Monday to engage Hizbullah. Israel has also called on residents to evacuate 27 villages located between the border and the Litani river, a zone extending 40km northwards.
Israel’s bombing of the south, Beirut, and Bekaa Valley, its divisional deployment and orders to empty the region of civilians reveal the extent of what it terms “limited” incursions. Moreover, they indicate how this could translate into a full-scale invasion to match the 1982 Peace for Galilee offensive which, then as now, was aimed at providing security for Israelis living in the north of the country.
On June 6th, troops crossed into Lebanon to drive Palestinian fighters from the very same border-Litani zone where fighting is now taking place with Hizbullah. Despite a July 1981 US-brokered ceasefire, Israeli defence minister Ariel Sharon readied forces to attack during February-March and sold to prime minister Menachem Begin a contingency plan — dubbed Little Pines — to advance to the Litani river. Once Israeli forces crossed the frontier, Sharon ordered them to Beirut in line with his Big Pines contingency plan.
The Israeli army fought along the coast to the capital, emptying Palestinian refugee camps en route. It bombarded the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) headquarters in southern Beirut and surrounded and blasted the western sector of the city. In mid-August, US president Ronald Reagan ordered Begin to halt the Beirut bombing, which ended within 20 minutes although the war continued.
Sharon’s objectives were to expel the PLO and its fighters from Lebanon, install as president pro-Israeli Maronite Christian Phalangist chief Bashir Gemayel, and compel Beirut to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
Sharon achieved his first objective, but none of the rest. Gemayel was assassinated on September 14th, ending the dream of a peace treaty. To avenge his murder, Phalangist fighters stormed into the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian-Lebanese Shia Beirut neighbourhoods and massacred hundreds of elderly men, women and children while the area was besieged by Israeli troops. The slaughter generated wide media coverage and international outrage which forced the Israelis to end the campaign on September 29th and withdraw in stages to the south.
After massive Israeli anti-war protests and an inquiry, Sharon was compelled to resign from the defence ministry in 1983.
With Iran’s backing, Hizbullah emerged from the wreckage of the war, drove Israel and its surrogate militia from southern Lebanon in 2000 and routed Israel’s army when it last invaded in 2006.
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