2006 Lebanon War

2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
Part of the 2006 Middle East conflict
Date 12 July 2006 – present Location Lebanon and northern Israel Result Ongoing
Belligerents
File:Flag of Hezbollah.svg Hezbollah	Israel	Lebanon note: AA only
Commanders and leaders
Hassan Nasrallah (Secretary General)	Dan Halutz (CoS) Udi Adam (Regional)	Michel Sulaiman (CoS)
Casualties and losses
Militants: 13 killed The IDF claims that 100 militants have been killed. Israel claims to have captured 2 Hezbollah guerillas in Southern Lebanon.	Civilians: 18 killed 418 injured, 875 treated for shock Tens of thousands displaced Soldiers: 24 killed 68 wounded	Civilians 380+ killed 1100 injured 800,000 displaced Soldiers: 22 killed 63 wounded (Lebanese government accounts.)

The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict is a series of ongoing military actions and clashes in northern Israel and Lebanon between Hezbollah's armed wing and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), starting on the 12 July 2006, when Hezbollah initiated Operation Truthful Promise, and Israel countered with Operation Change of Direction. The conflict has included "a force of [Israeli] tanks and armored personnel carriers", bombing raids by the Israeli Air Force (IAF), a naval blockade of Lebanon (especially southern Lebanon and Beirut), cross-border artillery fire and some small raids into southern Lebanon by IDF ground troops. On 23 July 2006, Israel crossed into Lebanon proper into the Maroun al-Ras area, which overlooks several other sites said to have been used as launch pads for Hezbollah rockets.Meanwhile, Hezbollah has engaged in artillery rocket bombardment on Israel's northern cities and towns, notably Haifa.

The Lebanese government has consistently disavowed Hezbollah's actions and refused to condone them while urgently calling for international peacemakers to end the conflict.

Military operations

Main article: Military operations of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

See also: Timeline of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

Beginning of conflict

According to Israel, at 9:05 AM local time (06:05 CET), on 12 July 2006, Hezbollah initiated a rocket and mortar attack on northern Israel, mainly on the town of Shelomi, resulting in injuries to five civilians. Israel furthermore says that a large ground contingent of Hezbollah militants then attacked two Israeli armored IDF Humvees on a routine patrol of the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, near the Israeli village of Zar’it with anti-tank rockets.

According to Lebanon, Israeli soldiers had infiltrated the Lebanese town Ayta al-Sha`b and had been arrested therein. Lebanon also says that Israeli aicraft, which were already active over Lebanese airspace, bombed the roads leading to the market town of Nabatiyeh, 60 kilometers south of Beirut, initiating the conflict.

During the event that took place, Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, and killed eight. The IDF confirmed the capture of the two Israeli soldiers and identified them as Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, both reservists who were on their last day of operational duty.

Israeli response

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israel responded within 2 hours: "A force of tanks and armored personnel carriers was immediately sent into Lebanon in hot pursuit. It was during this pursuit, at about 11:00 A.M. … a Merkava tank drove over a powerful bomb, containing an estimated 200 to 300 kilograms of explosives, about 70 meters north of the border fence. The tank was almost completely destroyed, and all four crew members were killed instantly. Over the next several hours, IDF soldiers waged a fierce fight against Hezbollah gunmen … During the course of this battle, at about 3:00 P.M., another soldier was killed and two were lightly wounded."

Hezbollah released a statement saying 'Implementing our promise to free Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, our strugglers have captured two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon'. Later on, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah declared that “No military operation will return them… The prisoners will not be returned except through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade of prisoners.”

Amir Peretz
Israeli Minister of Defence.

According to CNN:

The Israeli Cabinet authorized "severe and harsh" retaliation on Lebanon . . . Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told Israel's Channel 10, "If the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years."

Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert declared the attack by Hezbollah’s military wing an “act of war”, and promised Lebanon a “very painful and far-reaching response.” Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz also said that “the State of Israel sees itself free to use all measures that it finds it needs, and the Israeli Forces have been given orders in that direction.”

Israel said it held the Beirut government responsible for the attack, but Prime Minister Fuad Siniora denied any knowledge of the raid and stated that he did not condone it. An emergency meeting of the Lebanese government reaffirmed this position.

Early on 13 July 2006 Israel sent IDF jets to bomb Lebanon's international airport near Beirut, forcing its closure and diverting its arriving flights to Cyprus. Hezbollah then bombarded the Israeli towns of Nahariya and Safed, as well as villages nearby with rocket fire. The attacks killed two civilians and wounded 29 more. Nahariya residents began leaving the city en masse in fear of further Katyusha attacks. Israel is now imposing an air and sea blockade on Lebanon, and has bombed the main Beirut–Damascus highway.

Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev claims the Hezbollah unit that captured the two soldiers is trying to transfer them to Iran. Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam of the Northern Command, says Israel has not ruled out sending ground forces into Lebanon.

On 14 July, Following Israeli bombing raids on Lebanon which result in killing 60 civilians[3] Nasrallah said, addressing Israel: "You wanted an open war, and we are heading for an open war. We are ready for it." By that time, the Israel attacks had killed about 60 people in Lebanon.

On Sunday evening Hezbollah militants attempted to infiltrate an Israel Defense Forces post on the Lebanese Border.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz says that the ground operations would be limited though.

Some politicians and analysts say that Israel's response is disproportionate. Lebanon's social affairs minister said: she sees "monstrous and disproportionate retaliation" of the Israeli military against her country. Also EU warns Israel about disproportionate attacks against Lebanon. In addition spokespersons from the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of Islamic Conference and an assortment of human rights organizations have condemned Israel for its ‘disproportionate’ response to Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks.

Hezbollah rocket campaign

File:Hassan Nasrallah Hezbollah.jpeg

Artistic representation of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's Secretary General

After the Israeli initial response, Hezbollah declared an all-out military alert, and said it had 13,000 rockets capable of hitting towns and installations far into northern Israel. As a result, Defense Minister Peretz told commanders to prepare civil defense plans, and nearly 1,000,000 Israeli civilians have since been sent to bomb shelters or fled their homes to other parts of the country. Hezbollah continued to fire hundreds of Katyusha rockets into northern Israel's towns and cities, including Nahariya, Safed, Hatzor HaGlilit, Rosh Pina, Kiryat Shmona, and Karmiel, and numerous small agricultural villages.

For the first time, Hezbollah attacks have penetrated as far south as Haifa, Israel's third largest city, as well as Atlit and the Jezreel Valley cities of Nazareth and Afula. Al-Manar has reported that the Hezbollah attack included a Fajr-3 and a Ra'ad 1 liquid-fuel missiles, developed by Iran. One of the attacks hit a railroad repair depots, killing eight workers; Hezbollah claimed that this attack was aimed at a large Israeli fuel storage plant adjacent to the railway facility. Haifa is home to many strategically valuable facilities such as shipyards and oil refineries, and their targeting by Hezbollah is seen as an escalation.

Defence Minister Amir Peretz has declared martial law throughout northern Israel.

So far, Israeli Magen David Adom emergency teams have been called to 435 rocket landing sites, attending to 803 casualties.

Targeting of civilian areas

Attacks on civilians in Lebanon and Israel on the part of all combatants has been a major component in the conflict.

Louise Arbour, United Nations high commissioner for human rights, expressed "grave concern over the continued killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory." She suggested that the actions of Israel and Hezbollah may constitute war crimes. Arbour called for Israel to obey a "principle of proportionality" and said, "indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians … Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable."

Amnesty International condemned both Israel and Hezbollah and called for UN intervention, stating: "The past few days has seen a horrendous escalation in attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Yet the G8 leaders have failed conspicuously to uphold their moral and legal obligation to address such blatant breaches of international humanitarian law, which in some cases have amounted to war crimes."

One day after the call for a ceasefire by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on 20 July 2006, a U.N.-run observation post located near Zarit, Israel near the Lebanese border was hit by direct fire during fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia. The Israeli army claimed that Hezbollah rockets hit the U.N. post; however, a U.N. officer said that the post "was hit by an Israeli artillery shell."

By Israel

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, while calling Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and "a violation of international humanitarian law", also accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending" among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel:

"Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children, I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men.

File:Tyre Mass Graves (PBS NewsHour).png

A mass grave of Lebanese, among them children (in the half-length coffins), killed in the Israeli attack on Tyre, 21 July 2006.

Southern suburbs of Beirut after heavy bombing by the Israeli Air Force

Strikes on Lebanon's civilian population and infrastructure include Beirut airport, ports, a lighthouse, grain silos, bridges, roads, factories, medical and relief trucks, mobile telephone and television stations, fuel containers and service stations, and the country's largest dairy farm Liban Lait. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent, reported from Beirut, "It use to be that that Red Cross or that Red Crescent, or some sort of health care sign made you immune in some ways on a battlefield. Not so here. We're hearing stories—confirmed stories now about ambulances actually being attacked. Hospitals actually being bombed, so much so, that they can no longer function." The BBC reported that families evacuating the village of Marwahin in South Lebanon were struck on an open road by an Israeli missile attack; killing 17, many of them women and children. Human Rights Watch called for an investigation into this incident. There have been numerous reports of attacks on fleeing civilians; on 23 July 2006, three families fleeing Tyre at the command of the IDF were attacked by rockets fired from Israeli helicopters; all were prominently waving a white flag from their automobiles.

In response to American support and Israel's military tactics, Kim Howells, British Foreign Office minister, said in an interview with CNN, "I hope that the Americans understand what's happening to Lebanon: the destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children, and so many people. These have not been surgical strikes, and it's very, very difficult I think to understand the kind of military tactics that have been used. You know if they're chasing Hezbollah, well go for Hezbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation, and that's the difference."

Israel has stated that "Hezbollah has a huge arsenal and has fired 1,000 missiles at us. We are acting in self-defence. We are targeting only military objectives, including transport facilities that Hezbollah can use, but you have to remember that Hezbollah often hides in civilian areas. We sent flyers and gave other warnings to civilians to leave before our attacks." Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Israel has no intention to harm Lebanese civilians, but warned that civilians who live near Hezbollah weapon caches were in danger: "Because we know that some of their rocket caches, which are fired at Israel, are hidden in private apartments, I call on these residents to leave their homes. He who lives near a rocket is likely to get hurt." Israeli Army radio said that Israeli forces are under orders to bomb 10 residential buildings in south Beirut for every Hezbollah rocket fired at Haifa.

One day after the call for a ceasefire by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on 20 July, a U.N.-run observation post located near Zarit, Israel near the Lebanese border was hit by direct fire during fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia. The Israeli army claimed Hezbollah rockets hit the U.N. post; however, a U.N. officer said that the post "was hit by an Israeli artillery shell." According to CNN's Paula Zahn on 24 July, the Red Cross said that "an Israeli missile hit two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances that were parked inside a Lebanese town [Qana] evacuating civilians—the wounded included a 60-year-old woman and 12-year-old boy who's now in a coma"; this is the same town in which Israeli artillery destroyed a U.N. base in 1996 (The Qana shelling), killing more than 100 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge with the peacekeepers.

The UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland has said that one third of the dead are children, and declared that the "horrific" levelling of "block after block" of buildings in Beirut "makes it a violation of humanitarian law." By Egeland's estimates, in his adress to the United Nations Security Council, more than 500,000 Lebanese have been rendered internal refugees in Lebanon, as they have fled from the ongoing bombardments from Israel, and there is a mounting humanitarian situation in the country. .

By Hezbollah

Map showing some of the Israeli localities attacked by rockets fired from Lebanese soil as of Monday 24 July.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said that "In the beginning, we started to act calmly, we focused on Israel[i] military bases and we didn't attack any settlement, However, since the first day, the enemy attacked Lebanese towns and murdered civilians … Hezbollah militants had destroyed military bases, while the Israelis killed civilians and targeted Lebanon's infrastructure."

Artillery rockets by Hezbollah were fired at civilian targets throughout the conflict, landing in all major cities of northern Israel including Haifa, Nazareth, Tiberias, Nahariya, Safed, Afula Kiryat Shmona, and Karmiel, and numerous small agricultural villages.; some 220,000 Israeli civilians were sent to bomb shelters.

These targets included two Israeli hospitals, according to the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health, professor Avi Israeli.

Human Rights Watch stated on 18 July that "Hezbollah's attacks [on Haifa] were at best indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, at worst the deliberate targeting of civilians. Either way, they were serious violations of international humanitarian law and probable war crimes." The reasoning was that "the warheads used suggest a desire to maximize harm to civilians. Some of the rockets launched against Haifa over the past two days contained hundreds of metal ball bearings that are of limited use against military targets but cause great harm to civilians and civilian property. The ball bearings lodge in the body and cause serious harm."

Nearly 2,200 rockets have hit northern Israel. The recent showering of rockets by Hezbollah has caused considerable damage; killing many Israelis and injuring over a thousand more. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been forced to hide in fall out shelters.

Claims of white phosphorus use by Israeli forces

See also: Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons § Protocol III: Incendiary Weapons

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud claimed Israeli forces have used "phosphorus incendiary bombs, which are a violation of international laws, … against Lebanese civilians". Information Minister Ghazi Aridi also said, "Israel is using internationally prohibited weapons against civilians". The Lebanese claim has been denied by Israeli authorities, and remains unverified.

Protocol III: Incendiary Weapons of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Article 2, states:

"It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air delivered incendiary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects."

Opinions on civilian attacks

Israel says that it strives to minimize civilian casualties, but that this is a difficult task in Lebanon because Hezbollah uses civilian homes, Lebanese municipal infrastructure, and even medical facilities and mosques as live shields. Israeli military spokesman Capt. Eric Snider also asserts that Israel's targets had direct military significance, because "A lot of the rockets are stored in people's homes in urban areas, fired from within villages and brought in from the Damascus-Beirut highway". In addition, The Israeli Air Force informs Lebanese civilians of future operations by way of leaflet droppings. These leaflets indicate where and after when it is unsafe to be in a particular area, giving civilian populations time to evacuate despite providing an early warning to the intended target, Hezbollah militants. Also, general leaflets explaining Israel's desire not to bring harm to the Lebanese populace have been dropped, asking civilians to "Refrain from being located in places in relation to Hezbollah". The IDF reports that Hezbollah militants are preventing or impeding the evacuation of civilians from southern Lebanon despite warnings by Israel to do so, thereby keeping civilians inside the military theatre and exposing them to danger.

Other analysts have questioned Israeli tactics and their overall strategic framework. James Dobbins, head military analyst of the Rand Corporation, claimed that "The military rationale seems rather thin, since many of the targets have no conceivable relationship to Hezbollah." Juan Cole, Professor of Middle East and East Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, wrote "The current Israeli plan for Lebanon appears to seek to repeat Israel's success in Jordan in 1970–71. … By bombarding and menacing Jordan, Israel forced King Hussein and his Bedouin tank corps to attempt to curb the PLO. … [T]he struggle turned into a civil war with Palestinian Jordanians, in which the PLO was crushed … Ethically, [Israel's 'maximal plan'] is monstrous, involving war crimes on a vast scale insofar as it targets a civilian population for forcible relocation."

Historical background

See also: 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict § More background

Main article: The role of Iran and Syria during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

Israeli-Lebanon conflict

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, 110,000 Palestinians fled or emigrated from Israel to take refuge in Lebanon, and make up 695,000 refugees in Lebanon as of today. From 1970 to 1973, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was engaged in the Black September in Jordan, which routed a large number of Palestinian fighters and refugees into neighboring Lebanon. By 1975, they numbered more than 300,000, creating an informal state-within-a-state in South Lebanon. The PLO became a powerful force and played an important role in the Lebanese Civil War. Continual fighting occurred between Israel and the PLO from 1968 onward. In 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon in an attempt to rout out Palestinian militants who had been using southern Lebanon as a base for raids on northern Israel since 1968. As a result the United Nations passed UN Resolutions 425 and 426, which called for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end to military action in Lebanon At the end of the operation, Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon, leaving behind a UNIFIL force, and their allies, the South Lebanon Army.

Israel invaded again four years later in 1982 in response to an assassination attempt against Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov by Fatah - Revolutionary Council and to artillery attacks launched by the PLO against populated areas in northern Israel. Israel’s attack forced PLO forces out of Lebanon (mostly to Tunisia), and Israel occupied the southern part of the country. In 1985, Israel withdrew its forces from parts of Lebanon and remained in a 4–6 km deep strip of southern Lebanon named by Israel “The Security Zone”, which Israel cited as a protective measure to defend its Northern towns against Katyusha rockets. This occupation lasted until 2000. During the 18-year period from 1982, Israel was involved to varying degrees in a guerrilla conflict and a number of incidents including the Qana shelling and the Sabra and Shatila Massacre.

On the 24th of May, after the collapse of the SLA and the rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon, more than six weeks before its stated deadline of 7 July." This was considered by some Lebanese a victory for Hezbollah and boosted its popularity hugely in Lebanon.

The pullout was certified by the UN as complete as of 18 June 2000, in compliance with the mandate of United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 for Israel to “withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory”. However, Lebanon claims the Shebaa Farms, a 35 square km (13.5 sq mi) area, controlled by Israel, to be Lebanese territory. This territory which the United Nations Security Council has ruled is an occupied territory of Syria, and not part of Lebanon. Syria however denies this. Hezbollah has repeatedly attacked Israeli military positions, whilst Israel has carried out numerous attacks aimed at striking Hezbollah bases (see: Hezbollah activities).

In June 2006, the Lebanese military arrested an alleged assassination squad led by former South Lebanese Army corporal Mahmoud Abu Rafeh. According to army statements, the cell was trained and supported by the Israeli Mossad and "used … to carry out assigned assassinations in Lebanon." Among the killings attributed to the squad are those of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Mahmoud Mjzoub and his brother (May 26, 2006), and Hezbollah officials Ali Saleh (2003) and Ali Hassan Dib (1999).

Hezbollah

Main article: Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shi’a Muslim Islamist organization formed in 1982 "primarily to offer resistance to the Israeli occupation.". Hezbollah's political rhetoric has consistently called for the destruction of Israel.

It has a military and civilian wing, the latter participating in the Lebanese parliament, currently with 18% of the seats (23 out of 128) and the bloc it forms with others, the "Resistance and Development Bloc", a little less than 30% for a total of 35 seats (see Lebanese general election, 2005). It is a minority partner in the current Cabinet.

Hezbollah's terrorist wing is called Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Resistance").

Previous prisoner exchanges

During an attack in October 2000 on Shebaa Farms Hezbollah captured three IDF soldiers who were killed either during the operation or in its immediate aftermath. Hezbollah sought to obtain the release of 14 Lebanese prisoners in exchange, together with Palestinian prisoners. A prisoner swap was carried out on 29 January 2004: 30 Lebanese and Arab prisoners, the remains of 59 Lebanese militants and civilians, 400 Palestinian prisoners, and maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon were exchanged for an Israeli businessman and army reserve colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum captured in 2000 in a business trip, and the remains of the three IDF soldiers mentioned above. Three Lebanese nationals are still held in Israel's prisons.

Casualties

Lebanese

According to various media, between 350 and 390 people are reported dead. Additionally, there have been between 480 and 600 people wounded, and over 700,000 have been made refugees, with an unknown number of missing civilians in the south.

Hezbollah acknowledges 13 killed. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. General Dan Halutz has claimed that close to 100 Hezbollah fighters have been killed at 22 July, in land fighting in South Lebanon.

Israeli

File:Apache channel10.jpg

Crashed IAF Apache

• 24 Israeli soldiers have been killed (including one pilot, killed in a collision between two helicopters, and two in another helicopter crash, also 4 sailors were killed after INS Hanit was hit), 2 captured, and 68 more wounded.

• 17 civilians have been killed, while another 418 civilians were treated in hospitals, 19 of whom were seriously injured, and another 875 treated for shock.

Foreign nationals

• Seven Lebanese-Canadian members of a family from Montreal, including four children, were killed and six severely injured by an Israeli attack on Aitaroun in South Lebanon on 16 July. An eighth member of the family died later from injuries sustained in the blast.
• A family of four Brazilians, including two children, was killed in the Israeli bombings in Srifa, drawing condemnation from foreign relations minister Celso Amorim. Another Brazilian child was killed in an Israeli strike in Tallousa.
• Four members of a German-Lebanese family, including two minors, from Mönchengladbach, Germany were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Chehour in southern Lebanon while on vacation.
• The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry has reported that two Kuwaiti nationals have been killed by Israeli bombing.
• One Sri Lankan was killed in an Israeli bombing.
• One Iraqi was killed by Israeli bombing.
• One Jordanian was killed when Israeli missiles hit trucks near Zahleh in the mountains above the eastern Bekaa Valley.
• A Brazilian businessman was killed in an IAF missile attack on a factory he owned in Lebanon.
• An Argentinean woman died 13 July in an Hezbollah rocket attack on Nahariya, Israel.

Position of Lebanon

Even though Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for the Hezbollah attacks, Lebanon disavowed the Hezbollah raids and did not condone them. An emergency meeting of the Lebanese government reaffirmed this position. Almost immediately after hostilities began, Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called for a ceasefire. On 14 July, following a phone call between Siniora and President Bush, the Prime Minister’s office issued the statement that “Prime Minister Siniora called on President Bush to exert all his efforts on Israel to stop its aggression on Lebanon, reach a comprehensive ceasefire and lift its blockade.”

The next day, in a televised message to the Lebanese people, and afterwards in an interview with CNN, Siniora said “We call for an immediate ceasefire backed by the United Nations.”

On 16 July, the Lebanese special envoy to the UN, Nouhad Mahmoud, claimed that the United States was obstructing the Security Council's attempt to broker a ceasefire. In fact, "[t]he Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the U.S. was the sole member of the 15-nation UN body to oppose any council action at all at this time." Condoleezza Rice, speaking from St. Petersburg on 16 July, seemed to oppose an immediate cessation of violence, claiming that the ceasefire demanded by Siniora would be unworkable unless it addressed Hezbollah violence and the support it gets from Syria and Iran. She said the only way to deal with the problem is “to deal with the extremists, isolate the extremists, and put in place moderate democratic states”.

Many Lebanese feel the international community is not doing enough to end the conflict and consider Israel's attack to be unjustly punishing a country that has hardly any control over Hezbollah. There is also anger at Hezbollah for provoking Israel into attacking Lebanon. Due to a pro-American government coalition being in power in Lebanon since the assassination of Rafik harari, and the partial purging of Syrian influences over Lebanese society, many now feel betrayed by the reality of the American pro-Israeli response.

According to MSNBC, "Today, we sat down with Lebanon‘s prime minister. He said that in the last five days, Israel has set his country back 50 years."

On 21 July Lebanese defense minister Elias Murr said that the Lebanese army would fight any ground invasion by Israel.

Negotiations for ceasefire

Hezbollah has demanded that Israel trade three Lebanese prisoners for the two captured Israeli soldiers but Israel refused.

On 14 July BBC News reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would agree to a ceasefire if Hezbollah returned the two captured soldiers, stopped firing rockets at Israel, and if Lebanon implemented UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the group’s disarmament. Two days later, it was reported that Israel would agree to a ceasefire under two conditions: 1) The return of the two soldiers captured on 12 July and, 2) The Army/Government of Lebanon would have to ensure that Hezbollah would pull back to the Litani River.

On Monday, 17 July Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the fighting in Lebanon would end when Hezbollah guerrillas freed two captured soldiers, rocket attacks on Israel stopped and the Lebanese army deployed along the border.
But a spokesman for Hezbollah says it wants an unconditional ceasefire.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that a prisoner exchange was the only way to secure the release of the soldiers.

On 19 July "[t]he Bush administration has openly rejected calls for a ceasefire. The New York Times reports that U.S. and Israeli officials have agreed the bombings will continue for another week." Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice rejected an immediate ceasefire and said one could only occur once certain conditions are met." John Bolton, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, rejected the call for a ceasefire: "The notion that you just declare a ceasefire and act as if that is going to solve the problem, I think is simplistic."

On Saturday 2006-07-15 the United Nations Security Council again rejected pleas from Lebanon that it call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the U.S. was the sole member of the 15-nation UN body to oppose any council action at all at this time.

International reaction

Main article: International reactions to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

Lebanese protest in Sydney

International reactions to the conflict for the most part have condemned both Hezbollah and Israel, with many nations expressing concern over a possible escalation of the conflict. Some nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Canada, have asserted Israel's right to self-defense. The nations of the G8 blamed the upsurge in violence in the Middle East on "extremists" and accepted Israel's right to self-defense whilst exercising restraint.

George W. Bush supports the Israeli attacks and on 13 July said Israel has a right to defend itself. At the G8 Summit, President Bush said "the root of the problem is Hezbollah" and that the U.S. is "never going to tell a nation how to defend herself." Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his support for Israel's actions, calling the Israeli response "measured". According to Reuters and the New York Times, the Bush administration authorized the expedited processing and shipment of precision-guided bombs to Israel to support the Israeli campaign, but did not announce the shipment publically. Furthermore, on 24 July the United States will soon provide Israel with some 100 "bunker buster" bombs to kill the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group and destroy its trenches, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Monday. As the campaign in Lebanon began, on 14th July, the US Congress was notified of a potential sale of $210 million worth of jet fuel to Israel. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency noted that the sale of the JP-8 fuel, should it be completed, will "enable Israel to maintain the operational capability of its aircraft inventory." and "The jet fuel will be consumed while the aircraft is in use to keep peace and security in the region."

On the other hand, a number of European countries criticize the Israeli offensive which they fear may lead to war. Jacques Chirac, president of France — a country which maintained close links with Lebanon since the days of the League of Nations mandate — castigated the Israeli offensive into Lebanon on 14 July. Furthermore, Foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy qualified the Israeli offensive as a "disproportionate act of war with negative consequences" which could "plunge Lebanon back into the worst years of the war with the flight of thousands of Lebanese who … were in the process of rebuilding their country.”

Russia sharply criticized Israel over its onslaught against Lebanon sparked when Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers. The Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov said Israel's actions have gone "far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation" and repeating calls for an immediate cease-fire. He said "this is a disproportionate response to what has happened and if both sides are going to drive each other into a tight corner then I think that all this will develop in a very dramatic and tragic way." He added: "We firmly reaffirm support for Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity." and a Russian newsagency said "Putin believes that Israel pursues other aims in the Middle East, except for the return of hostages."

Iran, Syria and Yemen have given support to Lebanon and Hezbollah. The Arab League "condemns the Israeli aggression in Lebanon which contradicts all international law and regulations". However, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia also criticised Hezbollah for harming Arab interests and blame them for starting the conflict (while simultaneously criticizing Israel for what they view as an over-escalated response). On 20 July UN Secretary General Kofi Annan demanded both sides stop all violence immediately, condemning Hezbollah for sparking the conflict but also attacking Israel for its "excessive use of force". According to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan: "What is most urgently needed is an immediate cessation of hostilities for three vital reasons:..."

Demonstrations for and against Lebanon and demonstrations for and against Israel have been staged all over the world, in most major capital cities from London to Washington DC, to Jakarta. Demonstrations specifically for Hezbollah have been staged in various Islamic countries including Turkey,, Pakistan[4], Iraq, Iran, and Syria.

See also

• Military operations of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
• Timeline of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
• International reactions to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
• The role of Iran and Syria during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
• Hezbollah
• Israel-United States relations
• History of Lebanon
• History of Israel
• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Multinational Force in Lebanon
• History of the Middle East
• Views of the Arab-Israeli conflict
• International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict
• Arab-Israeli conflict facts, figures, and statistics

External links

• Pictures of the conflict from a Lebanese perspective
• Hezbollah's news website (latest updates)
• New York Times: Interactive map updated daily
• BBC: Map updated daily
• Guardian: Siege of Beirut
• An overview of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, from the 1978 invasion to today. From the History Guy Website
• Factfile: Hezbollah
• Online Resources for you about Israel and Lebanon
• Press Release: A Shia View of the Conflict
• United Nations Interim Forces In Lebanon, including maps of the UN deployment
• CS Monitor "Hezbollah's Aim to Shift Mid-East Power Balance"
• IDF Home Front Command Website Comes Under Fire
• CS Monitor "Wider War in Mid-East Not Likely"
• Google Earth kmz file showing location of events with links to news sources
• Salon.com "Israel's maximal option" by Juan Cole, 18 July 2006
• SaveLeb.org, News and Information about the current conflict
• Legal news and resources on the conflict, JURIST
• Obelus.org Analysis
• Yahoo News coverage
• The Depth of this Conflict: Jerusalem!
• NewsXS aggregated news headlines and rss-feed
• Electronic Lebanon
• Victims of Israeli airstrikes and bombings
• U.S.-Backed Israeli Policies Pursuing "End of Palestine". Democracy Now. 14 July 2006
• Ra'aan Gissin: "It's Iran, Stupid" Jerusalem Post 21 July
• Israel - a metaphysical perspective
• BBC: The Destruction of Beirut in pictures