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A Look at Key Events in Lebanon-Israel Conflict
The Associated Press
A look at major events between Lebanon and Israel:
- 1978: Israeli forces invade south Lebanon to attack Palestinian guerrillas who took over areas near the border, retaliating for an attack on an Israeli bus that killed more than 35 people near Tel Aviv. U.N. Security
Council calls for Israeli withdrawal and an international peacekeeping force for south Lebanon.
- 1979: A team of Lebanese militants, including Samir Kantar, land on the beach in the Israeli city of Nahariya and kill a young father and his 4-year-old daughter. The man's wife accidentally smothers their 2-year-old
daughter in a frantic attempt to keep her quiet so they won't be found. Two policemen are also killed.
- 1982: Israel invades again, this time reaching as far as Beirut. Israeli attacks leave up to 14,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians dead. Shiite Muslims form the militant group Hezbollah, which becomes the main
opposition to the Israeli occupation.
- 1982: In September, the Israeli army moves into Beirut a day after Lebanese president-elect Bashir Gemayel is killed in a bomb explosion. Israeli-allied Christian militiamen massacre hundreds of Palestinians in Beirut's
Sabra and Chatila refugee camps.
- 1985: Israel retreats south, but sets up a border buffer zone in south Lebanon. Israel trades three Israeli soldiers captured by Palestinian forces in 1982 for 1,150 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.
- 1986: An Israeli warplane is shot down in south Lebanon, and navigator Ron Arad is captured by Shiite guerrillas. His fate remains officially unclear, but he is presumed dead.
- 1989: Israel abducts Hezbollah cleric Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, hoping to trade him for information about Arad.
- 1992: Israeli airstrike kills Hezbollah leader Sheik Abbas Mussawi. The group chooses its current leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
- 1994: Israeli troops abduct Lebanese guerrilla leader Mustafa Dirani, hoping to use him to get information about Arad. Israeli aircraft strike a Hezbollah base, killing about 50 guerrillas.
- 1996: Israel launches an operation in a bid to end guerrilla attacks. Israeli jets also strike Lebanese power stations. Israeli artillery kills more than 100 Lebanese civilians sheltering at a U.N. base in Qana, south
Lebanon.
- 1997: Twelve Israeli soldiers are killed in a commando raid on south Lebanon.
- 2000: Israeli troops withdraw from buffer zone, ending 18 years of occupation. In a cross-border attack in October, Hezbollah captures three Israeli soldiers, later disclosed to be dead. In a separate incident, the group
kidnaps an Israeli businessman.
- 2004: Hezbollah swaps the Israeli businessman and the remains of the three Israeli soldiers for 436 Arab prisoners, including Dirani and Obeid, and the bodies of 59 Lebanese fighters.
- 2006: On July 12, Hezbollah kidnaps two Israeli soldiers in cross-border raid, sparking 34-day war that kills 159 Israelis, including 40 civilians, and more than 1,000 Lebanese, most of them civilians. War ends with a
U.N.-brokered cease-fire, bringing thousands of international peacekeeping troops to police Israeli-Lebanese border.
- 2008: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declares two captive soldiers dead, Cabinet approves deal to exchange Kantar for bodies of the bodies of the two soldiers and information on Arad.
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