 "Hezbollah vs Israel: What happened the last time they went to war in 2006?")
Are Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah going to war?
This is what many are worried about in the aftermath of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) killing a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
Israel claimed that the commander Fouad Shukur was allegedly behind the weekend rocket attack that left 12 young people dead in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights – an assertion that Hezbollah has denied.
The two sides have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that was unlikely to escalate into full-on war.
However, that could now change.
“The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area,” Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told Al-Manar TV.
“The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later.”
But what happened the last time Israel and Lebanon did battle?
Let’s take a closer look:
The war between Israel and Hezbollah kicked off with Hezbollah fighters crossing the border into Israel on July 12, 2006.
As per Human Rights Watch, the militants attacked an IDF convoy near the border.
They killed three soldiers and kidnapping two others – whom they brought back to Lebanon.
Hezbollah called the operation ‘Truthful Promise.’
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe aim of the operation was in keeping with Hassan Nasrallah’s objective to capture Israeli soldiers and exchange them for prisoners.
Hezbollah also sought the return of the Israeli-occupied Sheba Farms.
The terror group then announced it would enter ‘indirect negotiations’ with Israel.
However, then Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora denied that he knew what Hezbollah was planning.
In a letter dated July 13, 2006, to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, the Government of Lebanon declared that “[T]he Lebanese Government was not aware of the events that occurred and are occurring on the international Lebanese border” and that “[T]he Lebanese Government is not responsible for these events and does not endorse them.”
‘Act of war’
However, Israel was having none of it.
Then Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert announced that the Lebanon government had committed an ‘act of war.’
“Lebanon is responsible and Lebanon will bear the consequences of its actions,” Olmert vowed.
Meanwhile, Israel’s chief of staff Dan Halutz said “if the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon’s clock back 20 years,” as per ICRC.
Udi Adam, the head of Israel’s Northern Command, added, “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.”
The IDF on July 13, 2006, began bombing bridges, roads, and important other Hezbollah positions including Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport.
Israel also imposed a ‘complete blockade’ on Lebanon, as per Human Rights Watch.
According to CSIS, Hezbollah was taken by complete surprise.
Indeed Nasrallah would later announce that he would not have conducted the operation if he had known about the outcome.
But that would come later.
Hezbollah’s immediate reaction was to fire a hail of rockets at Israel.
The terror group is estimated to have fired 4,000 rockets – around 34 on average daily.
As per CSIS, Hezbollah militants hid themselves along trees, patches of vegetation, caves, surface irregularities, and buildings along the slopes of the hills.
From here, they launched missiles and rockets at Israeli positions on the border.
They also used civilian infrastructure to hide command centers, ambush Israeli fighters and allow its own militants space to manouvre.
Hezbollah also used anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) to great effect.
During the war, ATGMs accounted for the majority of Israeli infantry casualties including 24 tank crewmen.
ATGMs also took out 20 tanks.
The performance of Hezbollah’s militants won praise from Western analysts, as per CSIS.
According to ICRC, the government in Lebanon repeatedly asked the United Nations Security Council to call for an ‘immediate and unconditional ceasefire’ between Israel and Hezbollah.
The ceasefire
The war finally ended with the United Nations Security Council passing Resolution 1701 on August 11, 2006.
The resolution called for a “full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations, and emphasising the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers.
The resolution also called for a demilitarised zone on Lebanon’s side of the border.
Both sides agreed to the ceasefire which came into effect on August 14, 2006.
Israel finally lifted the air blockade on 6 September and the sea blockade on 7 September.
The war ultimately cost Lebanon more than 1,200 lives, mostly civilians.
Around 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers also perished.
Though the war was a stalemate in the end, it boosted both Hezbollah and Nasrullah’s reputation in the Arab world for having stood up to Israel.
Aftermath
Despite the lopsided fatality numbers, the war was seen as a failure in Israel due to the Israeli casualties and the fact that Israel failed to achieve its objectives of changing the situation along the border and weakening Hezbollah, as per Human Rights Watch.
Hezbollah and Israel have clashed repeatedly since then, but both sides have carefully avoided getting into a full-scale war.
Though UN peacekeepers are deployed in the area, Hezbollah continues to operate in the border area, while Lebanon says Israel regularly violates its airspace and continues to occupy pockets of Lebanese land.
An Israel-Hezbollah war “would be a total disaster,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last month, amid a flurry of shuttle diplomacy by the US and Europe.
Israeli political and military leaders have warned Hezbollah that war is increasingly probable unless the militants withdraw from the border.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has not threatened to initiate war but warned of a fight “without limits” if Israel does.
It remains to be seen how the latest situation plays out.
With inputs from agencies
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