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South Lebanon Security Zone | |||||||||
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Israeli-occupied territory of Lebanon | |||||||||
1985 [1] –2000 | |||||||||
![]() 1988 Israeli map of the occupied belt in Southern Lebanon | |||||||||
Capital | Marjayoun | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 1993 | 180,000 | ||||||||
Government | |||||||||
• Type | Military occupation | ||||||||
Administrator | |||||||||
• 1985–2000 | Antoine Lahad | ||||||||
Historical era | Lebanese Civil War | ||||||||
16 February 1985 [1] | |||||||||
25 May 2000 | |||||||||
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The Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon [lower-alpha 1] formally began in 1985 and ended in 2000 as part of the South Lebanon conflict. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon in response to a spate of attacks carried out from Lebanese territory by Palestinian militants, triggering the 1982 Lebanon War. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and allied Christian Lebanese militias subsequently seized large parts of Lebanon, including the capital city of Beirut, amid the hostilities of the wider Lebanese Civil War. Israel later withdrew from most of the occupied territory between 1983 and 1985, but retained control over areas along the Israel–Lebanon border that would later comprise the Israeli "Security Zone" [lower-alpha 2] in coordination with the separatist State of Free Lebanon, which collapsed in 1984. From 1985 onwards, Israel supported the South Lebanon Army (SLA), the Lebanese Christian quasi-military of the collapsed Free Lebanon State, against Hezbollah and other Muslim militants in most of Southern Lebanon; Israel's overall stated purpose for the Security Zone was to create a buffer separating Israeli civilians in northern border towns from Lebanon-based terrorists.[ citation needed ] In 1993, it was estimated that there were 1,000–2,000 Israeli troops and 2,300 SLA troops active in the area. [2]
After the end of Israel's Operation Litani in 1978, the areas of Southern Lebanon that would later comprise Israel's Security Zone also hosted United Nations peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). While the IDF oversaw the region's general security, the SLA managed most of the occupied territory's ground affairs, including the operation of the Khiam detention centre.
The occupied strip of territory was ten-kilometers-wide except for a salient which reached north to Jezzine and the Litani River and put Tyre and Sidon as well as the Beqaa valley within artillery range. The total area covered was 900 square kilometres (350 sq mi), and comprised approximately 10% of Lebanon's total land area. It was home to around 180,000 people – 6% of the total population of Lebanon – living in around a hundred villages and small towns. [3]
Although the occupied strip was officially formed by Israel in 1985, following the collapse of the State of Free Lebanon and Israel's disengagement from most of Lebanon, it has its roots in the follow-up to and early stages of the Lebanese Civil War. In 1968, Palestinian militants led by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had large-scale control over Southern Lebanon, from where they initiated an insurgency against Israel and Lebanese Christians. By 1975, the PLO's presence had become a severe nuisance for Christians and local residents, and Christian militias began to increasingly engage Palestinian militants in open conflict. From mid-1976 onwards, Israel began to assist Lebanon's Christian residents and militias through the "Good Fence" along the Israel–Lebanon border.
Following the Coastal Road massacre by Palestinian militants in Tel Aviv, Israel invaded Lebanon to displace the PLO from along its border, triggering the 1978 South Lebanon conflict. After a week of fighting, the PLO withdrew from Southern Lebanon, and Israel increased its support for the Christian South Lebanon Army (SLA); in 1979, Saad Haddad, the founder of the SLA, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Free Lebanon with Israeli support. After Israel's withdrawal at the end of the operation, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was deployed along the Israel–Lebanon border.
Following increased attacks in northern Israel and the attempted assassination of Israeli diplomat Shlomo Argov, Israel invaded Lebanon to displace the PLO from along its border, triggering the 1982 Lebanon War. By 1985, Israel had withdrawn to a front designated as a "Security Zone" in Southern Lebanon, where it retained its forces to fight alongside the SLA against Hezbollah and other Muslim militant groups, which marked the beginning of the 1985–2000 South Lebanon conflict.
During the evacuation in the first Lebanon war, the command of the SLA was delivered into the hands of Antoine Lahad, who demanded and received Israeli permission to hold the Jezzine zone north of the strip. In the first years after the IDF withdrawal from the north part of Lebanon, the strip was relatively quiet. Over the years, the Lebanese militant groups, led by Sh'ite Hezbollah, increased on the Israeli side in the security belt. Driving on the roads became dangerous, and IDF forces stayed more in the military camps than on the roads. Hezbollah made many efforts to attack the IDF's military camps.
On 27 July 1989 the Hizbullah leader in South Lebanon, Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid and two of his aides, were abducted from his home in Jibchit, by IDF commandos. The night-time raid was planned by then Minister of Defence Yitzhak Rabin. Hizbullah responded by announcing the execution of Colonel Higgins a senior American officer working with UNIFIL who had been kidnapped in February 1988. [4] [5]
On 16 February 1992, the then-leader of Hezbollah, Abbas Musawi, was assassinated by IDF's helicopter missiles. The IDF assumed that the Hezbollah leadership would curb their activities for fear of their lives and the lives of their families. Hezbollah was headed by Sheikh Nasrallah.
In July 1993 the IDF launched Operation Accountability which caused widespread destruction throughout Southern Lebanon but failed to end Hezbollah’s activities.
On 11 April 1996 the Israeli army, navy and air force launched a seventeen day bombardment of southern Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, in which 154 Lebanese civilians were killed.
At the time, Israeli soldiers serving in Southern Lebanon received no ribbon for wartime military service, because Israel considered the maintaining of the security belt as a low-intensity conflict rather than a war. [6] In early 2000, Chief-of-Staff Shaul Mofaz said that 1999 was "the IDF's most successful year in Lebanon" with 11 soldiers killed by hostiles in Southern Lebanon, the lowest casualty rate during the entire conflict. [7] A total number of 256 Israeli soldiers died in combat in South Lebanon from 1985 to 2000. [8] In 2020, Israel recognized the conflict as a war, and retrospectively dubbed it the "Security Zone in Lebanon Campaign". [9]
Before the Israeli election in May 1999 the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, promised that within a year all Israeli forces would withdraw from Southern Lebanon, effectively dropping the support for the South Lebanon Army. When negotiation efforts between Israel and Syria, the goal of which was to bring a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon as well, failed due to Syrian control of Lebanon (until 2005), Barak led to the decision of withdrawal of the IDF to the Israeli border. With the mounting pressure on South Lebanon Army and the South Lebanon security belt administration, the system began to fall apart, with many members of the army and administration requesting political asylum in Israel and other countries. With mounting attacks of Hezbollah, the ranks of the South Lebanese Army deteriorated, with reduced conscription and high rates of desertion at lower ranks. In April 2000, when it was clear the Israeli withdrawal was about to happen within weeks or months, some SLA officials began moving their families to northern Israel.
The Israeli complete withdrawal to the internationally recognized border took place on 24 May 2000. [10] The South Lebanon Army shortly collapsed, with most officers and administration officials fleeing to Israel with their families, as Hezbollah amounted pressure on the remaining units. When Israel allowed the pouring refugees in, some 7,000 refugees, including South Lebanon Army soldiers, Security Zone officials and their families arrived in Galilee.
The South Lebanon security belt administration was a Christian Lebanese provisional governance body that exercised authority in 850 square kilometres (330 sq mi) of the Israeli-occupied Security Zone. [1] It replaced the institutions of the Free Lebanon State and operated from 1985 until 2000 with full Israeli logistical and military support. During its functioning years, the administration was headed by Antoine Lahad, a Maronite Christian military officer. [1]
The South Lebanon Army (SLA) was a Lebanese Christian militia that was active during the Lebanese Civil War and its aftermath until its disbandment in 2000. It was originally named the Free Lebanon Army, which split from the Christian splinter faction of the Lebanese Army that was known as the Army of Free Lebanon. After 1979, the SLA operated in Southern Lebanon under the authority of Saad Haddad. It was supported by Israel, and became its primary ally against Hezbollah during the 1985–2000 South Lebanon conflict. At the time of Israel's Operation Accountability, Hezbollah claimed to have 3,000 fighters, but other reports estimated that the number was probably 600–700. [11] Other groups who fought against Israel and the SLA were the PFLP–GC, a Syria-based Marxist–Leninist and Palestinian nationalist organization, and the Popular Guard of the Lebanese Communist Party.
The launching of the Good Fence by Israel in 1976 coincided with the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 and Israeli support for Christian militias against the Palestine Liberation Organization. From 1977 onwards, Israel allowed Maronites and their allies to find employment in Israel and provided assistance in exporting goods through the Israeli port city of Haifa. The main border crossing through which goods and workers crossed was Fatima Gate near Metula. This provided essential economic stability to the administration of the Free Lebanon State and the subsequent South Lebanon security belt administration.
Israel states that, before 2000, approximately one-third of the patients in the ophthalmology department of the Western Galilee Hospital were Lebanese citizens who crossed the border through the Good Fence and received treatment free of charge. [12] The Good Fence ceased to exist with Israel's withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in 2000 and the disintegration of the South Lebanon security belt administration.
According to 1993 estimates, the Security Zone had a population of 180,000; of whom 50 percent were Shia Muslims, 10 percent were Maronites or Greek Orthodox Christians, 10 percent were Sunni Muslims, and 10 percent were Druze (most of whom lived in the town of Hasbaya). [13] In the central zone of the Security Zone was the Maronite town of Marjayoun, which served as the capital of the Israeli-occupied belt. Some residents remaining in the Security Zone had contacts within Israel, many of whom worked there and received various services.
The 1982 Lebanon War began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) operating in southern Lebanon and the Israeli military that had caused civilian casualties on both sides of the border. The military operation was launched after gunmen from the Abu Nidal Organization attempted to assassinate Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin blamed Abu Nidal's enemy, the PLO, for the incident, and used the incident as a casus belli for the invasion.
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and also led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.
Saad Haddad was a Lebanese military officer who was the founder and head of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) during the Lebanese Civil War. Originally a Major in the Lebanese Army, he defected and formed the South Lebanon Army and created the separatist State of Free Lebanon backed by Israel. For years Haddad closely collaborated with and received arms and political support from Israel against Lebanese government forces, Hezbollah, and the Syrian Army. Haddad died of cancer in his house in Marjayoun.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, adopted on 19 March 1978, five days after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the context of Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon and the Lebanese Civil War, called on Israel to withdraw immediately its forces from Lebanon and established the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL). It was adopted by 12 votes to none; Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union abstained, and China did not participate.
The Blue Line is a demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights. It was published by the United Nations on 7 June 2000 for the purposes of determining whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon. It has been described as: "temporary" and "not a border, but a “line of withdrawal”. It is the subject of an ongoing border dispute between Israel, Lebanon, and Hezbollah.
The 1978 South Lebanon conflict began after Israel invaded southern Lebanon up to the Litani River in March 1978, in response to the Coastal Road massacre near Tel Aviv by Lebanon-based Palestinian militants. The conflict resulted in the deaths of 1,100–2,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, 20 Israelis, and the internal displacement of 100,000 to 250,000 people in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces gained a military victory against the Palestine Liberation Organization as the latter was forced to withdraw from southern Lebanon, preventing it from launching attacks on Israel from across its land border with Lebanon. In response to the outbreak of hostilities, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 425 and Resolution 426 on 19 March 1978, which called on Israel to immediately withdraw its troops from Lebanon and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army, also known as the Lahad Army or as the De Facto Forces (DFF), was a Christian-dominated collaborationist militia in Lebanon. It was founded by Lebanese military officer Saad Haddad in 1977, amidst the Lebanese Civil War, and evolved to operate as a quasi-military during the South Lebanon conflict, basing itself in Haddad's unrecognized State of Free Lebanon.
The Good Fence was a term that referred to Israel's mountainous 80-mile northern border with Lebanon during the period following the 1978 South Lebanon conflict. At the time, southern Lebanon was controlled by the Maronite Christian militias and the South Lebanon Army, as the Free Lebanon State (1978–1984) and later the South Lebanon security belt administration.
On July 25, 1993, Israeli forces launched a week-long attack against Lebanon named Operation Accountability in Israel and the Seven-Day War in Lebanon. Israel specified three purposes to the operation, to strike directly at Hezbollah, to make it difficult for Hezbollah to use southern Lebanon as a base for striking Israel, and to displace refugees in the hopes of pressuring the Lebanese government to intervene against Hezbollah. The affected civilian population included both Lebanese and Palestinian refugees.
The Israeli–Lebanese conflict, or the South Lebanon conflict, is a series of military clashes involving Israel, Lebanon and Syria, the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as various militias and militants acting from within Lebanon. The conflict peaked in the 1980s, during the Lebanese Civil War, and has abated since.
The South Lebanon conflict, designated by Israel as the Security Zone in Lebanon Campaign, was a protracted armed conflict that took place in southern Lebanon from 1985 to 2000. It saw fighting between Israel and the Catholic Christian-dominated South Lebanon Army (SLA) against Hezbollah-led Shia Muslim and left-wing guerrillas within the Israeli-occupied "Security Zone"; the SLA had military and logistical support from the Israel Defense Forces over the course of the conflict and operated under the jurisdiction of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon provisional administration, which succeeded the earlier Israeli-backed State of Free Lebanon. It can also refer to the continuation of the earlier conflict in this region involving the growing Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon against Israel following the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Jordan after Black September. Historical tensions between Palestinian refugees and Lebanese factions contributed another layer to the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), which saw the Maronite-led Lebanese Front and the Shia Amal Movement at war with the PLO. Hence, the South Lebanon conflict can partly be seen as an extension of the civil war that ended in 1990.
Israel–Lebanon relations have experienced ups and downs since their establishment in the 1940s.
The Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon was a multi-sided armed conflict initiated by Palestinian militants against Israel in 1968 and against Lebanese Christian militias in the mid-1970s. It served as a major catalyst for the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. Fighting between the Palestinians and the Christian militias lasted until the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which led to the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Lebanese territory. While the PLO relocated to Tunisia in the aftermath of Israel's invasion, other Palestinian militant factions, such as the Syria-based PFLP–GC, continued to carry out low-level operations from Syrian-occupied Lebanon. After 1982, the insurgency is considered to have faded in light of the inter-Lebanese Mountain War and the Israel–Hezbollah conflict, the latter of which took place for the duration of the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon.
The battle of Khiam, fought between Hezbollah and the South Lebanon Army (SLA) in April and May 2000, which became a crucial step in the disintegration of the South Lebanon Army, in light of the coming withdrawal of IDF troops from South Lebanon.
Khalid Ahmad Bazzi was a Lebanese military commander who was the commander of Hezbollah's military wing, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon. In the 2006 Lebanon War, he was commanding officer in the battles of Maroun ar-Ras and Bint Jbeil. The heavy Israeli casualties and lack of progress of its army in these two battles is widely seen as the main cause of the Israeli failure in the war.
The State of Free Lebanon was an unrecognized separatist country in Lebanon. On 18 April 1979, Lebanese military officer Saad Haddad proclaimed the independence of a "Free Lebanon" out of the southernmost territory of Lebanon, amidst the hostilities of the Lebanese Civil War. Haddad was the founding commander of the South Lebanon Army, a quasi-military that aimed to serve the political interests of Lebanon's Maronite Christians during the conflict. Though Free Lebanon garnered no international recognition, it received support from neighbouring Israel; the South Lebanon Army and the Israel Defense Forces had established a working alliance with each other during the 1978 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Despite being further bolstered by the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the authority of Free Lebanon rapidly deteriorated following Haddad's death in 1984. In the post-Haddad era, Maronite governance continued in the form of the South Lebanon security belt administration, which remained intact under the umbrella of the 1985–2000 Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon. Over the course of the South Lebanon conflict, the Maronite administration and the South Lebanon Army operated under Israel's supervision, ultimately collapsing upon the Israeli withdrawal in 2000.
Aql Hashem was a Lebanese military officer and Colonel in the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and served under Colonel Saad Haddad and later Lieutenant General Antoine Lahad. He was killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack by Hezbollah in his farm in January 2000. His death was widely interpreted as the beginning of the end of the Israel-backed SLA.
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