2006 war, operation “peace in Galilee”… Between Israel and Lebanon, relations still complicated

Tension is rising a notch between Israel and Hezbollah, after the death Tuesday in an Israeli strike of Hamas number 2 in Beirut, Lebanon. This is far from being a first; crises have already broken out in the past, notably on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The funeral of Hamas number 2 takes place Thursday January 4 in Beirut, Lebanon. Saleh al-Arouri was killed on Tuesday January 2 in an Israeli bombing in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital. This attack “will not go unpunished”, promised the leader of Hezbollah, raising fears of an extension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Lebanon.

This is not the first time that Lebanon, particularly the south of the country, has experienced tensions with its Israeli neighbor. For several decades, the Israeli-Lebanese border has been the scene of numerous attacks. It is from Lebanon that Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian and pro-Hamas group, regularly fires rockets towards Israel. For its part, Israel has already responded with bombings on Lebanese territory. This was again the case on Thursday January 4 in the morning, causing the death of four Hezbollah fighters in South Lebanon. This also happened in April 2023.

A war with hundreds of deaths in 2006

These hostilities even led to war in 2006. At the time, the conflict broke out in the middle of summer when Hezbollah fighters infiltrated Israeli territory at night to attack and kill soldiers. Tel Aviv’s response was immediate. A few hours later, Israel bombed numerous Lebanese infrastructures: roads, fuel depots and even the Beirut airport. This war will last a little over a month and leave 1,200 dead in Lebanon, and 160 on the Israeli side. The UN will put an end to the conflict with the vote on a resolution which provides in particular that Hezbollah definitively leaves South Lebanon.

This area of ​​southern Lebanon, bordering Israel, is historically an area of ​​tension. Since the creation of Israel, Lebanon has in fact hosted hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. And in these camps, in the 1970s, there were also the activists and fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by Yasser Arafat, who targeted Israel from Beirut and southern Lebanon.

These regular attacks led to one of the first major Israeli offensives on Lebanese territory: the “Peace in the Galilee” operation, launched in 1982. The Hebrew state sent its tanks to Lebanon to create, according to Tel Aviv, a buffer zone. at the border to prevent PLO offensives. However, the Israeli army will go to the gates of Beirut, intensely bombing part of the city and leaving two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Chatila, to be massacred by Lebanese Christian militias. Israel will eventually withdraw from the Lebanese capital but will control the south of the country for more than 20 years, before leaving it in the 2000s and being replaced almost immediately by Hezbollah.