Lebanon War 2006

After an air raid on Tire .

date	July 12, 2006 to September 8, 2006
place	Lebanon and Northern Israel
Casus Belli	Border crossing and capture of two Israeli soldiers, rocket fire in northern Israel
output	Armistice since August 14, 2006. The sea and air blockade is lifted on September 8
consequences	Withdrawal of Israeli troops, expansion of UNIFIL's mandate

Parties to the conflict
Hezbollah	Israel Israel	Lebanon Lebanon
losses
Hezbollah : according to Hezbollah data 250 dead according to data from the Israeli army: 530 dead Other militias: Amal : 17 LCP : 12 PFLP-GC : 2	Civilians: 44 killed (19 of them Arab-Israeli citizens) 690 injured. 500,000 fled. Soldiers: 119 + 2 killed	Civilians: 1,191 killed 4409 injured 974,184 fled. Soldiers: 46 killed about 100 wounded

UNIFIL : 6 dead from Israeli attacks, 6 wounded
3 injured by Hezbollah
47 people of other nationalities (46 in Lebanon, 1 in Israel)

The 2006 Lebanon War is the name given to the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel , which began on July 12 and temporarily ended with a ceasefire on August 14. On the Israeli side, the term "Second Lebanon War" prevailed for the conflict. In Arab states, the terms “July War” and “33-Day War” are common.

The war was preceded by ongoing Hezbollah conflicts with the Israeli army. During the fighting, Israel imposed a naval blockade and began air strikes on targets across Lebanon , while Hezbollah rocketed locations in northern Israel. Later on, Israel also deployed its land forces in southern Lebanon .

The Lebanese armed forces limited themselves to air defense . The Lebanese government condemned Hezbollah's attacks on Israel and Israel's attacks on Lebanon . It called for an international peacekeeping force to end the conflict; the Lebanese army remained largely passive in the course of this.

After UN resolution 1701 was passed , the conflicting parties agreed to a ceasefire that came into effect on August 14, 2006 at 7:00 a.m. CEST. This was essentially adhered to and the Israeli troops gradually withdrew from Lebanon. At the same time, units of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL took up positions in southern Lebanon. Although neither side was able to fully achieve their war aims, both claimed victory for themselves.

Around 1,500 people were killed in the course of the conflict, the majority of whom were Lebanese civilians .

prehistory

After the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in 2000, there were armed clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army at almost regular intervals of two to three months in the Israeli-Lebanese border area. On May 26, Mahmoud Majzoub , leader of Islamic Jihad , and his brother Nadir were assassinated . Hezbollah blamed Israel for this attack and repaid it from May 28 with rocket attacks on military vehicles and a military base in Israel. Israel responded with air strikes on a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. On May 29, Hezbollah stepped up rocket and mortar strikes, which in turn led Israel to major air and artillery attacks. After withdrawing from the Gaza Strip in summer 2005, the Israeli army entered the Gaza Strip for the first time on June 24, 2006 and captured Osama and Mustafa Abu Muamar (According to Israeli information, the two are Hamas activists, Hamas states that the brothers are only sons of a Hamas member).

On June 25, 2006, Hamas activists captured 19-year-old Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit in Israeli territory . Two other Israeli soldiers were killed in the process. This action prompted Israel to trigger Operation Summer Rain , in the course of which the Israeli army again invaded Gaza. There are reports that Hezbollah began operations on July 12, 2006 to ease pressure from the Israeli army on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This contrasts with the statement by Hezbollah that they had started their action to exchange three Lebanese prisoners in Israel and to persuade Israel to withdraw from the Shebaa farms .

course

Daily chronicle from July 12th: 2006 Lebanon War / Timeline

The conflict began on July 12, 2006

The capture of two Israeli soldiers is considered to be the immediate trigger of the war. Hezbollah is thus continuing its tried and tested strategy of kidnapping Israeli soldiers in order to gain “bargaining ground” with the Israeli government. It was also suspected that Hezbollah was trying to take pressure off the Palestinians, who had been exposed to Israeli military action since June 28 . With this kidnapping, she said she intended u. a. the release of numerous Lebanese from Israeli prisons, including Samir Kuntar , who was convicted of murder .

Opposing versions exist on the question of whether the soldiers were apprehended on Israeli or Lebanese territory. However, the United Nations , the EU, the G8, the United States and well-known news channels, including the Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, described Hezbollah's action as cross-border and thus shared the view that the capture took place on Israeli territory. The Lebanese police and Hezbollah said the Israeli soldiers were captured trying to infiltrate a southern Lebanese village.

Israeli statements said a group of Hezbollah militia officers used anti-tank missiles to attack two Tzahal armored vehicles patrolling the Israeli side of the Israeli-Lebanese border on the morning of July 12 . Two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped near the village of Zar'it and three others were killed by the militia. At the same time, the northern Israeli city of Shlomi and Israeli positions near the Sheeba farms were shot at with Katyusha rockets.

In a press conference on the same day, Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah announced that the organization had captured two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon during the so-called Operation “The Fulfillment of the Promise” (Arabic: al-Wa'd al-Adeq ) ". This kidnapping of Israeli soldiers had been planned for five months. He went on to state that "no military operation will bring them back ... The prisoners will not be returned except in one way: indirect negotiations and prisoner exchanges." Requests were made to release three Lebanese, including Samir Kuntar, who was convicted of murder and terrorism in Israel .

According to Israeli sources, the Tzahal responded by sending a unit equipped with tanks and armored personnel carriers to pursue the Hezbollah fighters. At around 11:00 a.m., an Israeli Merkava tank drove over a mine on Lebanese territory, about 70 meters north of the border fence, which is estimated to have contained 200-300 kg of explosives. The tank was almost completely destroyed by the explosion and the four occupants were killed on the spot. Israeli soldiers then fought several hours with armed men from Hezbollah, during which another Israeli soldier was killed and two others wounded at around 3 p.m. The names of the two captured soldiers were later given by the Tzahal as Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev .

In order to counter allegations that the Israeli reaction had been carried out hastily, Ehud Olmert told a committee of inquiry into the Lebanon war in early March 2007 that the military operation had been reduced to a plan drawn up months earlier, which had been drawn up for the case of the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers at the border was. Israel's deputy ambassador to Germany, Ilan Mor, wrote in an interview during the war that, from his point of view, Israel would have started the action against Hezbollah even without the kidnapping of the two soldiers, as it had established itself as a state within the state with the help of Iran and Syria .

Israel's military operation was initially called "Operation Change of Direction", while Hezbollah called the operation it carried out " Operation Promise Keeped ".

Israeli attacks

After an air strike by the Israeli Air Force on July 25, 2006, the mosque in Sidon was destroyed .

With the so-called Operation Just Reward (“Just Reward”), Israel began a large-scale offensive on July 12 against Hezbollah, which operates from Lebanon. According to a CNN report , Dan Chalutz , chief of staff of the Israeli armed forces, threatened to “turn the clock back in Lebanon by 20 years” by destroying the infrastructure if the kidnapped soldiers were not released. Retired Colonel Gal Luft, a former commander in the city of Ramallah, explained to the Washington Post the Israeli tactics from his perspective:

“Israel is trying to create a rift between the Lebanese people and Hezbollah supporters by demanding a heavy price from the elite in Beirut. The message is, if you want your air conditioning to work and if you want to be able to fly to Paris to shop, then you have to pull your head out of the sand and take action to disarm the Hezbollah country. "

The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the Hezbollah attack an act of war and announced Lebanon a "very painful and far-reaching response" to. Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel held the Lebanese government responsible for the fate of the soldiers. Since Hezbollah had two ministers in the Lebanese government at the time , the Hezbollah attacks were also viewed by Israel as aggression by the state of Lebanon. In contrast, the Lebanese government under Prime Minister Fuad Siniora stressed that it was unaware of the Hezbollah attack and did not approve of it.

The Israeli air force bombed roads, bridges and Beirut airport and forced it to close. Incoming aircraft had to be diverted to Cyprus. Suspected Hezbollah positions in the south of the country were also attacked. Following Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel, Israel imposed an air and sea blockade on July 14 and expanded its attacks to targets in Lebanon, including a. with the bombing of the Beirut - Damascus motorway.

Areas in Lebanon bombed by Israel, July 12th to August 13th, 2006. The map is based on sources from the Lebanese news site tayyar.org. - Internet presence of the Free Patriotic Movement

Evacuation of US citizens by a US Navy landing craft on July 22, 2006

After around 60 Lebanese civilians were initially killed in the attacks by the Israeli air force, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said: “You wanted an open war and we are headed for an open war. We are prepared for him. ”The White House spokesman stressed that the US would not put pressure on Israel to enforce a ceasefire with Lebanon.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reaffirmed three demands to the United Nations that Israel wants to see fulfilled: Hezbollah must release the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers, end their rocket attacks, and Lebanon must comply with UN Resolution 1559 , which, among other things, dismantles all paramilitary militias in Lebanon and provides for the stationing of troops from the Lebanese regular army.

The Israeli army continued to attack targets across Lebanon. The southern districts and suburbs of Beirut (including Haret Hreik ), fuel depots such as the one near Sidon in the south of the country and the Lebanese military bases near Rayak in the east and Koleyat in the north of the country were attacked from July 15 . Air strikes on the main residential area of the Christian Maronites , which are classified as predominantly anti-Syrian and pro-Western, and on port facilities in the densely built-up high-rise bay of Jounieh, which is almost exclusively inhabited by Christians, were new .

On July 23, for the first time in this war, Israeli ground troops crossed the border with Lebanon and advanced on Marun ar-Ras ; the village is located on a mountain that dominates the area. According to Israeli sources, it was used as a base for launching Hezbollah rockets. On July 25, Israeli troops attacked the city of Bint Jubail , which is considered the Hezbollah stronghold near the border. The fighting lasted for several days. On July 27, there was an exchange of fire in which eight Israeli soldiers and some Hezbollah militiamen were killed. The Israeli army initially withdrew from the area on July 29.

Israel's Justice Minister Chaim Ramon said on an army broadcaster that “it is clear to everyone that a Hezbollah victory is a victory for global terrorism ... All of those who are now in southern Lebanon are terrorists who are in some way involved Hezbollah. ”Ramon's call to use more firepower immediately preceded the cabinet's decision to continue the military offensive.

After 27 people were killed, 16 of them children, in an air strike on Cana on July 30, international criticism of Israeli warfare grew. The incident, which led to the air strikes being suspended for 48 hours, intensified diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. On July 31, 2006, under US pressure, Israel agreed to suspend air strikes on southern Lebanon for up to 48 hours to allow civilians to escape and an investigation into the incident. However, the air strikes continued less than 24 hours later.

The Israeli Air Force reportedly flown 15,500 sorties over Lebanon during combat operations, attacking 7,000 targets. The Israeli Navy has set fire to 2,500 targets along the Lebanese coast. According to other sources, the Air Force flew 11,897 combat missions, more than in the 1973 Yom Kippur War (11,223) and almost twice as many as during the first Lebanon War of 1982 (6,052). Israeli artillery fired 170,000 shells, more than twice as many as in the Yom Kippur War. A senior IDF Armored Corps officer told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he would be surprised to find out that these 170,000 shells had killed even 5 Hezbollah fighters. The Israeli Navy fired 2,500 shells.

Rocket fire from Hezbollah

Map showing the Israeli localities attacked by Hezbollah.

After the start of the Israeli offensive in response to the capture of the two Israeli soldiers and the initial rocket bombardment of northern Israel, Hezbollah began firing Katyusha rockets into other northern Israeli locations . The militia said they had over 13,000 missiles available. According to Israeli sources, Hezbollah militiamen fired rockets at the city of Haifa on the evening of July 13th . Hezbollah denied this. The next day, Hezbollah attacked the cities of Nahariya , Safed , Hatzor , Rosh Pina , Kirjat Schmona and several smaller settlements with around 100 Katyusha rockets . 30 people were injured and two civilians were killed in Meron. Hezbollah fired about a hundred rockets at targets in northern Israel every day. (At the height of the fighting just before the ceasefire began, over two hundred missile hits were recorded daily in Israel.)

On July 14, the INS Hanit , an Israeli Sa'ar-5 class warship , was fired at and badly damaged off Beirut with a radar-controlled C-802 Noor (Tondar) anti-ship missile apparently from Iran ; four seafarers were killed.

Smoke from a katyusha over the Israeli city of Safed on August 4, 2006

The southernmost towns that the Hezbollah missiles reached were Haifa (Israel's third largest city), Atlit , the cities of Nazareth and Afula in the Jezreel plain and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee . Al-Manar , a Lebanese television broadcaster affiliated with Hezbollah, reported that Hezbollah had also used Fajr-3 missiles and an Iran-developed Ra'ad-1 liquid fuel missile in its attacks .

On July 25, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah told the start of the "second phase of our struggle" in which far-reaching missiles "on Haifa go" would. On July 27, Hezbollah launched twelve Khaibar-1 rockets on Afula . The Khaibar-1 missile is estimated to have four times the range of the Katyusha missiles - the Israeli government assumes that they were Iranian Fajr-5 missiles.

Tail unit of an Ababil drone that was shot down by the Israeli army on August 7, 2006, in use by Hezbollah

The Iran also supplied unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) of the type Ababil to the Hezbollah that this under the name of Mirsad 1 to clarify or cruise missiles used. On August 7, 2006, an Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft shot down a UAV of this type 10 km off the coast of Haifa with a Python 5 air-to-air missile .

According to a report in The Guardian , Hezbollah militiamen had fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israel by August 14.

Lebanon's position in the conflict

From the beginning of the conflict, the Lebanese position had been that the Lebanese government did not support the attack on the Israeli border patrol and the rocket fire on northern Israel, while demanding an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Lebanon. In contrast to the United Nations, Lebanon takes the position that Israel has failed to comply with UN resolution 1559 because it continues to occupy the Shebaa farms . On July 13, after an emergency meeting of the Lebanese cabinet , Prime Minister Fouad Siniora stated that the government was unaware of Hezbollah's action before it began "and will not take responsibility for or support what happened at the international border". On the same day, Lebanon called its US ambassador back after he made comments on television that Israel should consider an exchange of prisoners with Hezbollah.

However, Lebanese President Émile Lahoud , a pro-Syrian Maronite Christian, reiterated on July 17 that he would never betray Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Even after Israeli troops captured several cities in southern Lebanon , the Lebanese army remained passive. UNIFIL troops evacuated around 350 Lebanese soldiers from Marj Uyun on August 11th .

At the Lebanon conference in Rome on July 26th, Prime Minister Siniora presented a seven-point plan , informally known as the Siniora Plan . It consisted of the mutual release of prisoners, the withdrawal of Israeli troops behind the demarcation line, a return permit for civilians, the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Shebaa farms and the temporary placing of the area under the control of the United Nations. Other points included the extension of the authority of the Lebanese government to the entire area of southern Lebanon and the expansion of the existing UN forces in southern Lebanon, including authorization to intervene, the renewal of the 1949 armistice agreement and the reconstruction of the south. The plan is supported by Hezbollah, the EU, Syria and most members of the Arab League , including a. Jordan .

On August 7, Siniora offered to station 15,000 Lebanese soldiers in southern Lebanon to fill the vacuum after the withdrawal of Israeli troops before the international peacekeeping forces were on the ground. In this way the Lebanese government hoped to invalidate Israel's claim to remain in Lebanon until the UN soldiers arrived. The number of soldiers roughly corresponds to what the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called for as a strength of the international peacekeeping force.

armistice

The increasing number of civilian casualties led to growing criticism of Israeli warfare and an increase in diplomatic pressure on Israel, especially after the death of UN observers in Chiyam . This was also due to the great media coverage that had caused in particular the air attack on Cana, the shelling of a refugee convoy near Marj Uyun and the attack on a group of Syrian farm workers near al-Qaa with 23 victims.

In the first week of August France and the United States began working on a joint draft resolution that they introduced to the Security Council. The draft provided for an expansion of the UNIFIL mission. After the attack on the UN post, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan only proposed an extension of the UNIFIL mandate by one month. According to France and the United States, the new mandate should be a robust mandate that also provided for the violent implementation of previous resolutions (including resolutions 1559 and 1680 ) under the provisions of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter .

However, the Lebanese government was not completely satisfied with this draft. A delegation from the Arab League traveled to New York to negotiate with the members of the UN Security Council. The French government gave in and after days of struggling for the final version of the text, the Security Council passed resolution 1701 of the UN Security Council on August 11, 2006 .

Essential points of this resolution were the stationing of regular Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon for the first time since 1978 and a UNIFIL mission increased to 15,000 men (this mission is informally often referred to as UNIFIL II) as well as the disarming of all Lebanese militias, including Hezbollah. In connection with the resolution, there was a ceasefire that came into effect on August 14, 2006 at 7:00 a.m. CEST.

Since Hezbollah used the ceasefire to continue to equip itself, with Syria's help, with state-of-the-art Russian missiles supplied by Iran, Israeli special forces carried out a commando operation on August 17, 2006 in Budai in the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut. IAF aircraft also repeatedly entered Lebanon's airspace and over UNIFIL- monitored waters to conduct reconnaissance flights. For its part, Hezbollah did not comply with the "unconditional release of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers", which was demanded by the UN resolution. Two years later, Hezbollah released the PLF terrorist Samir Kuntar and four of its fighters against their bodies . Neither did the UNIFIL troops and the Lebanese army fully disarm Hezbollah and all other non-governmental organizations, as called for in the resolution. Most of the Israeli troops had withdrawn from Lebanon since October 1, 2006; Israeli soldiers were only stationed north of the Blue Line in the border town of Ghajar . The withdrawal took place after regular troops of the Lebanese army and contingents of a reinforced UNIFIL mission in southern Lebanon had taken up their positions.

Warring parties

On the Lebanese side, it is often unclear who was involved in the fighting. Contrary to popular belief, Hezbollah was the most important but not the only fighting party in Lebanon.

The Shiite Amal movement , currently allied with Hezbollah, participated in all major skirmishes, according to CNN. She reports 17 killed in action. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad quotes in the Guardian one of their Chiyam militants who, after declaring that he hates Hezbollah, continues:

“ But if your city is attacked by the Israelis, everyone will fight, whether it's the Amal, the communists or the nationalists. [T] he [Hezbollah] does not have the right to monopolize the resistance. "

The Lebanese Communist Party announced until August 7 seven in combat casualties, including four southern Lebanon on 19 July 2006 in temporarily occupied by Israeli troops village Srifa. Another three died on August 2, 2006 in Jammaliyeh near Baalbek in action against Israeli commandos.

According to a report by the Hezbollah Observer Group for Somalia on October 16, 2006, members of the Union of Islamic Courts also took part in the fighting .

Victims and consequences of war

The number of victims is based on information provided by those involved in the conflict. It is currently unclear whether the total Lebanese number of victims also includes killed Hezbollah fighters, as well as the actual number of Hezbollah fighters killed.

Victims in Lebanon

Ghaziyeh near Sidon, South Lebanon

1,191 people were killed (civilians, soldiers and Hezbollah fighters?) And 4,409 injured, not a few of them until after the armistice due to duds, mines and cluster bombs remaining in the area. In the most momentous Israeli air strike in Cana, 27 civilians, including 16 children, were killed in a three-story apartment building.
46 soldiers died in attacks on Lebanese military facilities. On August 23, three Lebanese soldiers were killed while clearing mines in southern Lebanon.
Contrary to earlier information from Hezbollah, not 80 but 250 militants were killed in the fighting. Hezbollah gave no information about the wounded. Three Hezbollah fighters were killed in a commando operation by the Israeli army after the start of the ceasefire west of Baalbek on the Bekaa plain in eastern Lebanon. According to television reports, three supporters of the radical Islamic Hezbollah militia were killed in another clash in southern Lebanon because the soldiers of the Israeli army had "felt threatened".
However, the Israeli military leadership claims that Israeli troops have killed around 530 Hezbollah militiamen since the fighting began. During the last two days of the war, the Tzahal dropped leaflets over Lebanon with the names of 180 killed and identified Hezbollah fighters and broadcast these names on the television and radio frequencies used by Hezbollah.
Seventeen fighters from the ranks of the Amal militia died.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) under Ahmad Jibril reported the deaths of two relatives in Israeli attacks on Palestinian refugee camps.
At the height of the crisis, almost a million Lebanese were on the run; in mid-October 2006, around 200,000 people had still not returned to their homeland.
At least 25 people have been killed in cluster munitions explosions in southern Lebanon since the ceasefire entered into force on August 14 .

Victims in Israel

Hezbollah rocket attacks killed 44 civilians; including four who suffered heart attacks during missile attacks. 690 people were injured, according to police reports. 19 Arab-Israeli citizens were among the people killed. On July 16, 2006, eight civilians were killed and 17 wounded in a Hezbollah rocket attack at a railway depot in Haifa city .
119 Israeli soldiers were killed during the war, including a 26-year-old aircraft mechanic, and over 400 others were injured. The bodies of the two Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev , who were moved to an unknown location by Hezbollah on July 12, were exchanged for Samir Kuntar and other Lebanese prisoners in July 2008 ; The time and reason for her death were not disclosed. Hezbollah's rocket attack with the most serious consequences killed twelve Israeli reservists and wounded twelve others on August 6, 2006 in the village of Kfar Giladi . On the night of August 19, one Israeli officer was killed and two other soldiers were wounded during an operation by Israeli troops. The Israeli army said it carried out this operation to prevent arms shipments from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah. On August 23, an Israeli soldier died and three others were wounded when their tank hit an old Tzahal mine in southern Lebanon.
At the height of the crisis, about half a million Israelis fled the Hezbollah rocket attacks from north to south Israel.

Victims of other nationalities

A total of 47 people of other nationalities were killed during the armed conflict.

23 Syrians, eight Canadians (including four children), six Brazilians (including three children), three members of a German-Lebanese family from Mönchengladbach (only one son was rescued the following day), two Kuwaitis, died on Lebanese territory as a result of Israeli attacks. a woman from Sri Lanka, a Jordanian and an Iraqi.

An Argentine woman died on Israeli territory as a result of an attack by Hezbollah on Nahariya .

Victims among members of UN units

On July 25, four unarmed were by an Israeli air strike UN observers of UNTSO killed. There was one representative each from Canada, China, Finland and Austria. On July 17, another international civilian UNIFIL employee and his wife (both from Nigeria) were killed in an air raid on Hosh near Tire. Three Chinese UN observers were wounded in a mortar shell attack by Hezbollah near Tire in southern Lebanon.

Environmental impact

Oil spill in the port of Byblos

After the bombing of an electricity station about 25 km south of Beirut on July 14, between 10,000 and 35,000 tons of heating oil spilled into the Mediterranean Sea. The result was an oil spill that was about 130 kilometers long and up to 30 kilometers wide and polluted about 80 km of the Lebanese coast (about a third of the coastline). The sea blockade initially made effective control of the oil spill impossible. It was the third largest environmental disaster in the Mediterranean to date.

In the conflict area - especially in Israel - around 400 fires caused by rocket fire lost around 12 km² of afforested areas and around 40 km² of naturally grown forests. Around 14 km² are made up of nature reserves and national parks. According to the Jewish National Fund Keren Kayemeth Leisrael, over 700 hectares of forest and around 1500 hectares of natural landscape were destroyed, the reforestation or restoration of which will "definitely take 20 years". In view of the water shortage in Israel, the need for large quantities of extinguishing water, which was needed to fight the fires, was problematic.

Economic Impact on Lebanon

The Lebanese Farmers' Association puts the damage in agriculture at USD 135–185 million. The Middle East Airlines (MEA) is their loss due to the failure of flights to and from Beirut with $ 45 million.

Tourism was and is an important branch of the economy in Lebanon and even then served, among other things, to reduce national debt . According to the BFAI , Lebanon was visited by 900,000 tourists in 2005, two million visited Israel, 5.8 million Jordan and 3.4 million Syria . The region is rich in cultural treasures. Lebanon had calculated a 20 percent increase in this industry for 2006, and simplified visa rules should bring the number of visitors to over two million by 2010. The numbers for the end of June showed an increase of 24 percent compared to 2005.

Tourism in Lebanon collapsed after Rafiq al-Hariri's murder . In addition to tourism, the Lebanese economy is focused on the production of light industrial goods and food. Trade with Syria recorded double-digit growth rates in 2005. According to the Austrian trade delegate in Damascus, Kurt Altmann, three billion dollars in damage from the Israeli attacks correspond to "15 percent of the gross domestic product ". Mohamed Safadi, Lebanese Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, expects war damage of up to $ 20 billion, including consequential economic damage. The country's national product was significantly lower than in the previous year. The Beirut stock index fell 14 percent after the attacks began.

Growth of at least three percent was expected for 2006, after 2005 had closed with zero growth . After the war, zero growth or a decrease of three percentage points were expected again. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora asked for help with reconstruction at a meeting with Sweden's Development Aid Minister Carin Jämtin in August 2006 .

The civil war from 1975 to 1990 had already severely damaged the economy. Although the reconstruction program had boosted the economy, it, in conjunction with a high interest rate policy , contributed to the enormous national debt , which reached 195 percent of the gross domestic product.

Large parts of Lebanon's civil infrastructure were destroyed, including 640 km of roads , 73 bridges, and 31 other destinations such as the Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, port facilities, water and sewage works, power stations, 25 gas stations, 900 commercial facilities, up to 350 Schools and two hospitals as well as 15,000 apartments. 130,000 other apartments were damaged.

Economic Impact on Israel

The war cost Israel's economy an estimated four billion euros. Instead of economic growth of around 5.5 percent of the gross domestic product, less than four percent was predicted for 2006 after the war. The earlier VAT reduction to 15.5 percent will be withdrawn if necessary.

Since concerts and events have mostly been canceled for security reasons, heavy losses are expected in the hotel industry.

Domestic Impact on Israel

Domestically, the government of Israel lost its reputation after the war. The polls for the Prime Minister have fallen. At the end of October 2006, the Jisra'el Beitenu party was accepted as a new coalition partner to strengthen the government. The Winograd Commission , which was set up by the Israeli government to investigate Israel's military and political mistakes during the war, is believed to have triggered the resignation of the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Dan Chalutz , before the report was even published. The report attests that the Israeli leadership has serious failures and weaknesses in strategic thinking. Several politicians then called for the Prime Minister's resignation, and one minister resigned shortly after publication.

background

View over Beirut

After the Palestinian War , Lebanon became a haven for more than 110,000 Palestinian refugees who had fled Israel. The Lebanese Civil War lasted from 1975 to 1990 and Syrian forces occupied the country from 1976 to 2005.

From 1975 various paramilitary groups fought for supremacy in the country. The trigger was the conflict between the Maronite Phalange militia and the armed forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who were driven out of Jordan after “ Black September ” 1970 . The Lebanese civil war cost between 90,000 and 110,000 lives by the end of 1990.

Israel intervened in the conflict for the first time in 1978. Israel then marched into the neighboring country on June 6, 1982 under the name of "Operation Peace for Galilee" on the grounds that it wanted to end continued attacks on Israeli territory. The Israeli forces advanced as far as Beirut and occupied the capital. The PLO, which had its headquarters there and its own state structures in the south of the country, was forced to leave Lebanon and moved its administration to Tunisia .

Between June and September 1982 a total of around 20,000 Palestinians were killed, mostly by Christian militias. In 1985, Israel again occupied a strip in the south of the country and did not return this region to Lebanon until May 25, 2000 when the army withdrew. On July 24, the United Nations declared that the Israeli army had withdrawn beyond the 1949 Armistice Line (the 'Green Line') in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 (1978) . The occupation of the Shebaa farms is controversial on the Lebanese side , but according to the UN decision, this is Syrian territory.

Since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in June 2000, Hezbollah repeatedly fired at northern Israel with Katyushar rockets. Israel, in turn, bombarded southern Lebanese territory with rockets and mortar shells. Hezbollah's July 12 operation is only one of a series of incidents.

Hezbollah

Under the influence of Israeli interference in the Lebanese civil war, the Islamist Hezbollah was founded in 1982 with the aim of combating the Israeli occupation in Lebanon. Hezbollah pursues both socio-political goals, for example in the areas of education and health care, as well as its statutory goals, which, according to its leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, primarily include the eradication of Israel. The Shiite organization, supported by Iran and Syria , has a political and a military arm. It is a legal party in Lebanon, has provided two ministers since July 2005 and maintains social institutions such as hospitals, schools and orphanages. Its political commitment is determined by anti-Israeli and pro-Syrian interests and has fallen into twilight at the latest since the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005 and numerous other murders of anti-Syrian politicians. Anti-Syrian Lebanese accuse Hezbollah of active or at least passive help in the attacks. Hezbollah MPs tried to prevent the international tribunal to solve the Hariri murder made possible by resolution 1757 of the UN Security Council .

The organization's military wing carried out attacks on northern Israel and on Israel-occupied (and under international law attributed to Syria, but partially claimed by Lebanon) areas such as the Golan Heights and the Shebaa farms . Hezbollah was also a participant in the Lebanese civil war, in which it fought, among other things, bloody skirmishes with the then rival Shiite militia Amal . Hezbollah is explicitly viewed as a terrorist organization by four states: the USA, Israel, Canada and Australia. Other states differentiate between the political and militant arms of Hezbollah. The EU does not include Hezbollah in its list of terrorist organizations, even though the EU Parliament came to the conclusion in 2005 that there was “clear evidence of Hezbollah terrorist activities” and that “all necessary steps were to be taken to end its terrorist activities “Must do. The attacks on October 23, 1983 , in which nearly 300 French and American soldiers stationed in Lebanon at the time, were killed, is also attributed to Hezbollah.

The UN has repeatedly called on the Lebanese government to use its state violence against the Hezbollah militias in order to stop the attacks on Israeli territory. The UN Resolution 1559 of 2 September 2004 calls for respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon, the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon and the disbanding and disarmament of all paramilitary militias . In the resolution to end the Lebanon War in 2006, the demand was reiterated. Lebanon did not comply with this request and took a passive role before and during the war, instead of fulfilling its obligation to enforce the state's monopoly of force. The Lebanese Army website commented on November 22, 2004:

“ The only foreign force that exists in Lebanon is the Israeli forces occupying the Shebaa farms. "

She explained about the requested disarmament of Hezbollah:

“ The national resistance facing the Israeli occupation is not a guerrilla and it has no security role within the country and its activities are limited to facing the Israeli enemy. This resistance has led to the enemy withdrawing from most of our occupied land and is still there to liberate the Shebaa farms. "

Hezbollah has so far refused to surrender its weapons, justifying this with the threat from Israel.

Role of Iran and Syria

Iran's security officer Ali Larijani met with the Syrian government

Both Iran and Syria have condemned the Israeli attacks in Lebanon. Observers in the western world see both states as supporters of Hezbollah and are believed to have influence over its activities.

Iran is considered the protective power of the Shiites in Lebanon and allegedly supports the organization with arms deliveries and 100 million US dollars annually. Iran's official position is that

“ Lebanese Hezbollah is an independent political group represented in the country's parliament. It is very popular and respected by the people. Hezbollah is supported by all Muslim peoples, including the Muslim Iranian people. It is not dependent on Iran, and [of] Iran is not responsible for their activities. "

Despite its military presence in Lebanon , which ended in April 2005 after three decades, Syria still exerts great influence on the domestic politics of the neighboring country.

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb , professor of political science at the American Lebanese University in Beirut, comes to the conclusion that Iran has supplied Hezbollah with everything that can be broken down into individual parts and transported to Lebanon from its weapons depots . In addition, there would be intensive coordination between Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian Quds Brigades . Syria only serves as a transit country for arms deliveries.

Due to Iran's influence on Hezbollah, there are voices who see Iran's actions as a distraction and additional aspect in the nuclear dispute with the West. Accordingly, the Iranian leadership is using the crisis and its influence to establish itself as a regional power. Hezbollah had pledged its support in the conflict over the Iranian nuclear program . In January 2006, the Tehran leadership received several high representatives of Islamist movements from the region, such as the Hamas representative Chalid Maschal and the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah . Both pledged to "step up" their activities against Israel should Iran be attacked.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told the press on July 16 that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was already intervening in the conflict, which Hezbollah and Iran rejected.

On the evening of July 18, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused Iran and Syria of co-responsibility for the escalation of violence in Lebanon. According to this, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard operating in Lebanon coordinated the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers about a week earlier with Hezbollah in order to divert the world's attention from Iran's nuclear program, which was thus successful. The Israeli army had previously announced that the Hezbollah militia was smuggling weapons from Syria into Lebanon. Hezbollah, meanwhile, reported that it had novel, longer-range missiles. "Our fighters fired Raad 2 and Raad 3 rockets at Haifa," said a statement. The first Raad ("Donner") missiles were manufactured in Iran in 2004; these have a range of 120 to 350 kilometers. According to the IRNA news agency , on July 19, Lebanese President Émile Lahoud met with the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad-Reza Scheybani. The question was to what extent Iran can help Lebanon in the attacks by Israel. Se'ew Schiff , correspondent for the Haaretz , wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs that the Lebanon war saw Israel and Iran face each other for the first time in a conflict. The war may only be the prelude to a major conflict with Iran.

Role of the United States

Statement by US President George W. Bush with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the press on August 7, 2006 about the war in Lebanon.

In its initial statements, the United States urged Israel to exercise restraint ( see: International Responses ). According to a report in the British newspaper The Guardian , Israel's military actions were coordinated with the United States. The United States had given Israel a timeframe in which to inflict maximum damage on Hezbollah. Only then would the United States government join international calls for a ceasefire. Such an agreement was denied by the US government. However, as early as the beginning of the air operations, the United States granted the Israeli government's request for faster delivery of precision weapons it had ordered.

The Lebanese President Émile Lahoud

The US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article explaining the policy of the US government with an unofficial agreement with Israel's actions. Hersh cites numerous anonymous American and Israeli sources in pro-government circles that Israel had planned the attacks on Hezbollah months in advance. Accordingly, the US government had been prepared for such a war long before. According to Hersh, this is part of a military cooperation that primarily affects the air forces of both countries. The US government therefore sees the military operation against Hezbollah as a test case for an American air strike on Iran. Tehran supported Hezbollah in the development of underground bunker systems similar to those that existed in Iran. According to Hersh's informants, the attack will be sought before the end of President Bush's term of office. Hersh had already obtained the official denial of the US government to his core statements in advance and incorporated it into his article.

diplomacy

International reactions

US President George W. Bush expressed "concern about democracy in Lebanon". Nevertheless, the US and German Chancellor Merkel emphasized that Israel has the right to self-defense. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad held a phone call with his Syrian counterpart on July 13 that made Israel responsible for the escalation. He also warned Israel to launch an attack on Syria. In this case, the country should expect a "sharp reaction". The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Hamid-Reza Asefi, strongly condemned the attacks by Israel on Lebanon and the destruction of the infrastructure by Israel on the same day. He added that Iran was concerned about the destabilization of the region being committed by Israel. On July 14, the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert set the conditions for the cessation of fighting to be the release of the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped in southern Lebanon, the cessation of rocket attacks by Hezbollah and the fulfillment of UN resolution 1559 . At a joint press conference with the Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani on July 12, 2006, Syria's Vice President Faruk al-Sharaa reprimanded Israel's behavior in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. He denied allegations that Syria had anything to do with the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned of a regional war. He called on the world powers to intervene in this conflict. In general, the mood in the Arab world is divided. While some states like Morocco , Syria and Yemen have expressed support for Lebanon and Hezbollah, other states like Saudi Arabia and Egypt indirectly criticized Hezbollah for its behavior.

The then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan suggested a peace mission at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg . British Prime Minister Tony Blair said "the only way to stop the bombing of Israel is to station international troops". Russia, Italy and the EU were positive about this; for Germany, according to Chancellor Merkel, this was “not an issue” at the time. Israel welcomed the deployment of blue helmets , but set conditions for this. It must be the task of a peacekeeping force to disarm Hezbollah in a strip 80 km north of the border.

Switzerland reacted harshly to Israel's military reaction on July 20, in the form of its Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey . As undisputed as Israel's right to self-defense is, the attack on Lebanon is clearly inappropriate, especially since it hits uninvolved civilians and civil institutions on a large scale. As the depositary state of the Geneva Convention , Switzerland is obliged to press for compliance.

The President of Venezuela , Hugo Chavez , threatened to break off relations with Israel. Chavez said in a televised address that he was not interested in maintaining diplomatic relations, offices or trade relations with a state such as Israel.

The German government held back with official statements. Because of the armed conflict in Lebanon, the Greens demanded that German arms deliveries to Israel be suspended. "Given the nature of the Israeli warfare, every arms delivery is a contribution to the tension," said Green defense expert Winfried Nachtwei of the Netzeitung . Nachtwei called on the federal government to adhere to the guidelines for the export of war weapons to crisis areas.

Lebanon Conference

On July 26, an international conference was held in Rome to deal with the conflict in Lebanon. The direct conflicting parties Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas did not take part in the meeting. Syria was also not represented at the conference. The 15 participants included representatives from the European Union , the United States, the UN, the World Bank and Lebanon. Egypt and Jordan also attended the conference.

In addition to resolving the conflict, it was primarily a matter of supplying the Lebanese civilian population. The proposals made by an international protection force were also partially specified. This peacekeeping force should have a UN mandate and should be able to secure the border between Israel and Lebanon after a ceasefire. The conference did not agree on precise proposals as to how a ceasefire could be achieved through diplomatic channels.

Israel allegedly interpreted the indecision and the vague results of the conference, which for many observers were based on the disagreement of the consultative nations, as "permission" to continue with its operations in Lebanon. Israel saw itself confirmed in the view that it could only disarm Hezbollah itself, which would require a military victory. Despite all the supposed disagreement, the conference called for a ceasefire. The Finnish Foreign Minister, representing the EU, emphasized that the call would be in complete contradiction to Israel’s interpretation.

UN resolution

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted UN Resolution 1701 on August 11th . The draft submitted by the permanent members USA and France contained, among other things, the demand for an immediate ceasefire and the stationing of 15,000 Lebanese and 15,000 UNIFIL soldiers to oversee a ceasefire, and refers to the implementation of Resolution 1559. In contrast to the original mandate of UNIFIL is the extended mandate under Chapter VII of the UN Charter .

The public debate

Protests by Lebanese in Sydney on July 22nd.

Pro-Israeli demonstration in London on July 30th

Right from the start, public opinion in Germany and other countries fought bitterly about how to assess the conflict. While the critics of Israel's actions saw the army's actions as an illegal war of aggression and criticized Israel for it, Israel's actions were defended by the opposing side. Proponents said Israel had taken action against a "deadly threat" from Hezbollah and Hamas, thus preventing Syria and Iran from using Lebanon as a fixed launch pad against Israel.

In Israel

With their approach, Olmert and Peres won the broad approval of the Israeli population in the first days of the war: According to surveys, 90 percent wanted to continue the war until Hezbollah was removed from the border, and only then did negotiations about a ceasefire and the release of the lead kidnapped soldiers. After the killing of at least 28 civilians in a bombing in Cana in southern Lebanon, increasing losses of ground troops and the fact that the propagated war aims were not achieved, approval of Olmert and Peres' administration fell to 48% and 37% respectively.

The mass newspaper Jediot Achronot emphasized that Israel was defending its “real border” for the first time in years.

The spokesman for the organization: " Shalom Achschaw " ("Peace Now"), Yarif Oppenheimer said that Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. Israel was attacked by Hezbollah and therefore had to react.

Uri Avnery of the Gush Shalom considered Israel's actions a long-prepared action by the Israeli military and harmful, not only for Lebanon, but also for Israel. He feared further radicalization and strengthening of Hezbollah.

Worldwide

In addition to the United States, Great Britain also diplomatically supported Israel and sought understanding for Israel's actions. Most of the Western governments were largely reluctant to officially condemn Israel in the conflict.

The Evangelicals in the United States supported the position of Israel. For the Christian Right , the support of Israel is important as part of the “last battle” (see also Christian Zionism ). Newt Gingrich , a representative of the neoconservatives who, alongside the evangelicals, is the main base of the republican US government under George W. Bush , saw the Israel-Hezbollah conflict as the outbreak of World War III. One should now work towards it quickly and should not pursue an appeasement policy now .

Reporting by Israeli media

In a report published in 2008, the Israeli NGO Keshev criticized the media handling of the Second Lebanon War. According to the report, with a few exceptions, the reporting in Israel gave no room for critical voices, but created “an atmosphere of unrestricted support and justification for the war”. The report documents, among other things, a statement by the deputy marketing director of the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv after the war:

“Even when we had problematic material related to the management of the war […] we restrained ourselves. In a certain sense, we betrayed our role as journalists, but we did so because we took national, patriotic considerations into account and decided that in the event of war […] we were part of the Country; that it was permissible, and even required of us, to postpone disputes and criticism; and that we did not have to apologize, or to feel abashed, for our support and backing of the Army and the Government. "

“Even when we had problematic material about warfare [...] we held back. In a sense, we betrayed our role as journalists, but we did it because we were aware of national and patriotic considerations and decided that in case of war [...] we would be part of the country; that it was permissible, even necessary, to postpone controversy and criticism and that we do not have to apologize or be ashamed of our support for the army and government. "

According to the report, both the lack of support for Israelis living near the border and the suffering of the Lebanese civilian population were barely discussed in the media, or the content was decoupled from the war effort.

According to Keshev, a more critical approach to the military conflict only emerged towards the end of the war, when a possible defeat of the Israeli army became apparent. Most of this criticism, however, was limited to blame for failure. It has often been reported that the policies of Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert hampered the combat operations of Israeli troops and “do not allow them to win”.

Aspects of international law

In this conflict, the subjects of international law with the rights and obligations regulated by international law are primarily the states of Israel and Lebanon. As a non-governmental organization, Hezbollah does not meet the criteria for a subject of international law. However, this does not release them from the obligation to comply with international law. Rather, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as trustee of the Geneva Convention, issued a declaration on July 19, 2006 by ICRC Director Pierre Krähenbühl et al. a. expressly stated that the Hezbollah fighters "are bound by the rules of international law and are not allowed to shoot at civilians or civil infrastructures" . However, Hezbollah's lack of international legal capacity also results in the duty of Lebanon to effectively enforce compliance with these rules on its territory if Hezbollah disregards these rules.

The Israeli side therefore also holds the Lebanon government responsible for the attacks and rocket attacks carried out by Hezbollah from Lebanese territory and cites this as a justification for its own actions in Lebanon. The Lebanese government (in which Hezbollah is involved with two ministers) declares, however, that it does not have control of southern Lebanon and that it is militarily incapable of disarming Hezbollah, as is required by UN resolution 1559.

Israel invokes its right to self-defense in this war . Even experts in international law who affirm the applicability of this principle in the current conflict, however, raise the question of whether Israel's approach, in particular the acceptance of the high number of victims in the Lebanese population and the destruction of civil infrastructure, is still based on the principle of proportionality. This means that the intended military benefit must not be disproportionate to the expected civilian damage. The illegal behavior of Hezbollah and its failure to suppress it by the Lebanese state was published in an extensive study by the organization Human Rights Watch under the title Civilians under assault: Hezbollah's Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War .

Possible war crimes

Several aid agencies have accused Israel of war crimes by killing disproportionate numbers of civilians and targeting hospitals and unarmed UN soldiers.

The human rights organization Amnesty International accuses Israel of "deliberately attacking and destroying civilian targets" during the Lebanon campaign, including power stations, gas stations, dairies, schools and mosques. This was "part of the military strategy of the Israeli armed forces," according to a report the organization presented on August 23, in which it called on the UN Security Council to immediately launch an independent international investigation into possible violations of international law by Israel and Hezbollah initiate. According to press releases from medico international , refugees z. B. from the villages of Ait al Sharab and Yarin, they were "continued and targeted fire" by Israeli helicopters, "although they carried white flags" and were "driven from house to house onto the open street". The shelling did not end until they managed to join a refugee convoy accompanied by journalists. Caritas Lebanon reports that aid convoys were exposed to Israeli “bombs and shell fire”. Amnesty International also complained that, while Israel is investigating some allegations, it has failed to provide results, while the organization has accused the Lebanese authorities of failing to investigate possible Hezbollah war crimes. Israel has rejected the human rights organization's allegations. The Israeli military was "as surgical as possible" to hit the "Hezbollah military machinery," said Foreign Office spokesman Mark Regev. The then Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said: "We are doing everything to ensure that 'no civilian is hit and no civil infrastructure is destroyed'". In parallel to its allegations against Israel, Amnesty International also made similarly serious allegations against Hezbollah. This would have targeted civilians under fire and used cluster munitions . A quarter of Hezbollah rocket attacks have hit residential areas. According to General Secretary Irene Khan , there is no doubt that "Hezbollah has violated the laws of war".

Phosphorus bombs

On July 16, 2006, Lebanese President Émile Lahoud accused Israel of using “internationally banned weapons”, including phosphorus bombs , against civilians. Jawad Najem, a surgeon at a Tire hospital , said he had treated the wounded with phosphorus burns. According to a BBC report, other doctors in southern Lebanon also suspected that the burns they were treating were caused by phosphorus. In a letter to the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Shimon Stein , the Organization of International Doctors for the Prevention of Nuclear War ( IPPNW ) called for clarification about the "possible use of phosphorus ammunition by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon and Gaza". According to media reports, the statements of several doctors in the Lebanese port city of Tire and in the capital Beirut pointed to the use of this weapon. The Israeli military said they had not violated international law, which regulates but does not prohibit the use of incendiary weapons and phosphor bombs.

In mid-October 2006, the Israeli Knesset Relations Minister, Jacob Edery, admitted that phosphorus bombs had been used in Lebanon. In doing so, he contradicts older reports by the Israeli military, according to which phosphorus bombs were only used to mark target areas. Investigations by the UN also confirm the use of mortar and artillery ammunition with white phosphorus by the Israeli armed forces.

The injuries can also result from so-called DIME bombs ( Dense Inert Metal Explosive ), a tungsten-copper-aluminum-powder-explosive mixture is used. A conventional metal bomb jacket is dispensed with in order to reduce the splinter effect.

Cluster bombs

Both Israel and Hezbollah used cluster bombs in the conflict . The Convention on Cluster Munitions was not yet in force at the time; Israel did not join him either.

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of using cluster munitions against the civilian population. The Israeli army has admitted the use of such ammunition but declares that it is being used "in accordance with international standards". In a report in the Haaretz newspaper on September 13, 2006, an Israeli artillery officer involved in the war and commander of an Israeli Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), who did not want to be named, gave the number of cluster bombs used as 1,800 and the number of bomblets contained therein as at least 1 , 2 million. He described this type of warfare as "hideous and crazy" - this action by the Israelis had previously been described as "shocking and completely immoral" by high-ranking UN officials on the ground, including Jan Egeland . Israel makes its own cluster bombs, which leave hardly any unexploded bomblets; however, American-made cluster bombs were used against Lebanon for cost reasons, 30-40% of which did not explode immediately.

According to the Lebanese government, 70 percent of the areas affected by the war are contaminated with cluster bombs, with several consistent reports apparently 90 percent of the cluster munitions being dropped in the 72 hours before the end of the Lebanon war in 2006, which was foreseeable on the basis of UN Resolution 1701. The UN organization Mine Action Coordination Center South Lebanon MACCSL currently has 824 confirmed target locations for cluster bombs in southern Lebanon (as of November 29, 2006) and reports, based on figures from the National Demining Office (NDO) in Lebanon, of 26 dead and 162 injured Duds from cluster munitions (as of December 19, 2006) - including 22 children under 12 years of age. On November 24 and 25, 2006, accidents occurred in the course of mine clearance, in which two employees of the Armor Group , who wanted to help a shepherd in an area contaminated with cluster bombs, each suffered amputation of his right foot - as did a member of BACTEC in creating access to the accident victims. A Lebanese field supervisor and another demining specialist were also injured. In addition, according to the UN, eight members of the Lebanese armed forces have been killed and 12 others injured by exploded submunitions since the end of the fighting in southern Lebanon . The Israel Defense Forces have provided maps to locate the locations of explosive ordnance; The locations where cluster bombs are used are not shown separately, which has been criticized by Amnesty International, among others, and which is why MACC SL wants to seek more specific maps. Representatives of the former human rights organization have found numerous duds in villages and even in houses in Lebanon.

On October 19, Human Rights Watch announced that Hezbollah's cluster bomb attacks on civilian areas in northern Israel had now been confirmed. HRW itself documented two cluster bomb attacks on the Galilean village of Mghar using the Chinese Type 81 missile on July 25, in which three people, including an eight-year-old child, were injured. The use of the Chinese 122 mm Type-81 missile by Hezbollah is the world's first secured use of this cluster bomb. HRW justifies the late announcement with Israeli security concerns. According to the Israeli police, a total of 113 cluster munitions rockets were fired at Israel during the conflict, killing one person and injuring 12 others.

On November 21, 2006, the Israeli army announced that it had also used cluster bombs on residential areas, contradicting previous statements. According to the United Nations, cluster bombs had been discovered in 840 locations in southern Lebanon by the end of January 2007.

According to Brigadier General Avihai Mendelblit, internal investigations, which the Israeli armed forces concluded in December 2007, concluded that the army had mostly used the cluster bombs in uninhabited areas. In residential areas, the cluster bombs were only used as a "defense measure" against rocket attacks from previously evacuated villages. The use of the cluster bombs was therefore legal. According to the United Nations , at least 38 people have been killed in cluster bombs since the end of the war and more than 200 people have been mutilated. Human rights groups and the UN estimate that around four million bomblets were scattered during the 34-day battle, of which one million had not yet exploded.

After the end of the war, the UN demanded that the position maps for the dropped cluster bombs be handed over. Three years later, on May 9, 2009, the Israelis handed over the position maps to the UN.

Air raid on Cana

On July 30, 2006, a three-story residential building was bombed in Cana, killing 26 civilians, including 16 children. (Originally higher numbers were given, which later turned out to be partially wrong.) The Israeli government regretted the civilian bomb casualties, but cited that civilians had been told to leave the area before the attack and that suspicious buildings had been attacked a "legitimate response" to the more than 150 Katyusha rockets that were fired from civil buildings in Cana at Israel within two weeks. Human Rights Watch , Amnesty International and other human rights organizations accused Israel of having committed a war crime in the air strike on Cana .

Shrapnel bullets against civilians

Human Rights Watch accused Hezbollah of using anti-personnel bullets against Israeli civilians. During the missile attacks on Haifa on July 16 and 17, 2006, projectiles containing small steel balls were used. These are intended to ensure that the largest possible number of people are injured when the projectiles explode. Such projectiles are not suitable for causing great damage to buildings. Using shrapnel on civilians is a violation of international law, according to Human Rights Watch.

Military aspects

Comparison of combat strength

A comparison of the military equipment and combat strength of the two opponents clearly shows the asymmetrical character of the conflict.

Israel

The Israeli army keeps its exact troop strength a secret, various sources such as the Israeli Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies have reduced their troop strength to around 168,000 regular soldiers, 107,500 of whom are conscripts. Since Israel has a small population reservoir suitable for military use in regional comparison, an effective reservist system with a disproportionate number of currently 408,000 reservists plays an important role in the country's defense policy.

Tsahal has modern weapons technology for the army, navy and air forces. A large part of the military reconnaissance is carried out by satellites . The Israeli armed forces are equipped with modern equipment, as Israel continues to import mainly technology-intensive large equipment from the USA, but also other NATO countries including Germany, mainly from India. Israel is also developing its own weapons. According to a report in The New York Times on July 22,confirmed by representatives of the US government,the previous week, at the request of the Israeli government, the US government had decided to deliver a long-term delivery of up to 100 bunker-breaking GBU bombs -28 accelerated.

Hezbollah

Like Israel, Hezbollah does not disclose its manpower. The International Institute for Strategic Studies names 600 to 1000 active fighters, 3000 to 5000 available fighters and 10,000 reservists, while the International Crisis Group mentions 300 to 400 active fighters and approx. 3,000 reservists.

In addition to its significantly lower combat strength, Hezbollah was also otherwise inferior to the Israeli army according to the criteria of classic warfare . For example, it had no large equipment such as combat aircraft or helicopters and no combat or transport tanks . Their shoulder-based anti-aircraft missiles (such as the Strela-2 ) presented a manageable risk for enemy air forces due to their short range and accuracy. Furthermore, they had no radar systems. As a result, Israel had complete air control and could destroy any low-risk ground target with precision bombs .

Hezbollah's primary attack weapon in the 2006 Lebanon War were Katyusha - artillery rockets originally from Iran and Syria, which flew unguided and therefore had poor accuracy. The probability of hitting a specific target has therefore been increased through the use of multiple rocket launchers and the launching of large numbers of missiles at a single target area.

Given their disadvantages, the Hezbollah militias used guerrilla tactics in almost all regular military categories , but in some cases they also had the equipment and training of a regular army. In addition to handguns and machine guns, this also includes anti-tank missiles, above all RPG-7 , presumably RPG-29 , and, according to Israeli information, also anti-tank guided weapons of the Metis-M and MILAN types . Another Israeli source reports that Russian Kornet and American TOW are also owned by Hezbollah. Russia, on the other hand, is already denying the delivery of the unguided RPG-29. Haaretz reported that at least 50 of the 118 Israeli soldiers killed in the Lebanon war were killed by anti-tank missiles; modernized 9M14 Malyutka were also called, which were originally used for the first time in the Yom Kippur War on the Egyptian side.

analysis

As a result of the war, Israel has put an end to Hezbollah's ongoing threat and bombardment of its northern cities and towns for the time being. It remains to be seen to what extent Hezbollah rearmament and a resumption of the organization's struggle in the future. Soon after the war, however, there were increasing signs that Hezbollah could quickly regain its former strength despite the UNIFIL mission.

A study by the United States Army Combined Arms Center saw the outcome of the war as a stalemate. Both sides claimed victory for themselves

According to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies , the political consequences of the military intervention are disproportionate to the number of refugees or the political instability in Lebanon. The extent to which the Lebanese government's political autonomy was not already unstable before the war is insufficiently taken into account in the study. After the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in February 2005 at the latest , it became clear that the country is deeply divided between supporters of the self-proclaimed protective power Syria and anti-Syrian Lebanese. According to Resolution 1757 of the UN Security Council, the investigation of the murder is now in the hands of an international tribunal. Pro-Syrian MPs had tried to prevent this tribunal until the very end and declared the Lebanese cabinet not authorized to act after resigning. The political crisis also revealed the fact that the Lebanese police and army had lost their monopoly on violence . Much of southern Lebanon, as well as parts of the capital Beirut, were in the hands of Hezbollah militias before the war.

According to a more detailed study by the same house, Israel was surprised by the strength of Hezbollah by underestimating the reinforcement of guerrilla tactics through better technical equipment. Chief of Staff Dan Chalutz , the intelligence apparatus and the chief of staff of the Israeli Air Force are criticized in the study for having relied too heavily on Israeli air superiority. In addition, Israel allowed the other side to dictate its strategy. Defense policy mistakes such as the permanent preferential treatment of the air force and ill-considered cuts in the reservist system are said to have done the rest.

A study commissioned by the United States Army supports these findings and expands the criticism of Israeli warfare in several ways. Hezbollah's intention to release its relatives in Israeli prisons by means of a prisoner exchange was known, so that the war could be prevented with adequate compliance with basic military regulations, security measures and the implementation of existing emergency plans. In addition, the study criticizes the self-limitation, the lack of willingness to take risks and the lack of concept of Israeli politics in the decision-making process. The investigation certifies the military's lack of basic equipment and a lack of adaptability due to the ongoing dominance over Palestinian terrorist organizations. In addition, the military not only got involved in a military doctrine mistakenly reproduced by the USA, but was also unable to communicate it due to its philosophical, intellectually disguised content.

In return, the study praises Hezbollah's warfare from a military point of view for its agility, its adaptability and its situational work towards a war with Israel. This came about with Syrian benevolence and Iranian and North Korean support.

American military argued that Israel exaggerated the efficiency of the air strikes. They alleged that despite the dropping of 23 tons of bombs on the alleged headquarters bunkers, they had failed to eliminate any of Hezbollah's leaders. The Al-Manar television station was only down for 2 minutes after the first attack before it continued to broadcast. The TV station was then bombed 14 times without it stalling again after the first "hiccup".

literature

Gilbert Achcar , Michel Warschawski : The 33 Day War. Israel's war on Hezbollah in Lebanon and its consequences . Edition Nautilus , Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89401-539-8 . ( Review by I. Küpeli )
Nahum Barnea: Israel vs. Hezbollah . In: Foreign Policy , no. 157 (November-December 2006) pp. 22–28
Andrew Exum: Hizballah at War: A Military Assessment . (PDF) Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Focus No. 63, December 2006
Hajo Lippke: “David or Goliath?” Israel has a problem of deterrence after the Lebanon war . (PDF) In: Kiel Analysis on Security Policy , No. 21, November 2006.
Volker Perthes : The Syrian Solution . ( Memento of November 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) In: Foreign Affairs , 85 (November-December 2006) 6, pp. 33-40 Complete text on swp-berlin.org
Volker Perthes: Analytical Perspectives on the War in Lebanon . In: The International Spectator , Vol. 12, No 1, March 2007, pp. 115-119
Paul Salem: The Future of Lebanon (PDF; 233 kB) In: Foreign Affairs 85 (November-December 2006) pp. 13–22
Se'ew Schiff : Israel's War with Iran . In: Foreign Affairs , 85 (November-December 2006): pp 23-31 reprint the article in the New York Times , December 4, 2006
Bernhard Schmid: The war and the critics . The reality in the Middle East as a projection surface for anti-Germans, anti-imperialists, anti-Semites and others. Unrast, Münster 2006, ISBN 978-3-89771-029-0
Simon miracle: Israel - Lebanon - Palestine. The Second Lebanon War and the Israel-Palestine Conflict in 2006 . Berlin 2007.

Web links

Wiktionary: Israel-Lebanon conflict - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Commons : 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Political actors and parties to the conflict

Official website of the Lebanese government on the war (English, Arabic)
Official website ( memento of February 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) of the Israeli government on the war (English)
Official website ( memento of February 10, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) of the UNIFIL mission (multilingual)

Portal pages and dossiers

Tagesschau.de : Difficult mission in the Middle East ( Memento from July 22, 2010 on WebCite )
Israel's Campaign in Lebanon, Current (August 8, 2006) Comments from Radio X, Frankfurt (Free Radios) Part 1: The role of morality in this war (MP3; 5.1 MB)
Israel's Campaign in Lebanon, Current (August 8, 2006) Comments from Radio X, Frankfurt (Free Radios) Part 2: On the Reasons and Interests of the Interfering Powers (MP3; 9.5 MB)
BBC : In quotes: Global reaction to conflict , July 25, 2006
Crooke, Alastair; Perry, Mark: How Hezbollah defeated Israel ( October 19, 2006 memento in the Internet Archive ), in: Asia Times , October 2006

Reports from and to human rights organizations

Human Rights Watch : Civilians under Assault - Hezbollah's Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War , Vol. 19, no. 3 (E); August 2007
Human Rights Watch: Fatal Strikes - Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon , Vol 18, No 3, August 2006

International law documents / bilateral agreements

The Observer : The draft UN resolution , August 6, 2006 (English); Text of the draft resolution on the conflict in the Middle East for submission to the UN Security Council, which the USA, France and Great Britain agreed on August 5, 2006
UN Resolution 1559 (2004) (English); Subject: withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon and free elections; It was not until 2005 that Syria complied with this request under Lebanese and international pressure

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Ulrich Sahm: Less civilian victims . n-tv.de, December 16, 2006

^ ^A ^b Reuters : Truce goes into effect to end war , August 14, 2006

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The Daily Star : Israeli offensive killed 1,287 in Lebanon: official tolls ( Memento from September 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), August 14, 2006

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Israeli Foreign Ministry: Israel-Hizbullah conflict: Victims of rocket attacks and IDF casualties , August 2006, updated. August 2007

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g BBC News : Middle East crisis: Facts and figures , August 17, 2006

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Israeli Government - Prime Minister's Office: Hizballah's Attack on Israel ( February 19, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ), August 13, 2006

↑ ^a ^b Ynet - List of all Israeli dead with a link to corresponding online reports: Names of all Israeli dead , August 14, 2006

↑ ^a ^b ^c Higher Relief Commission (official government agency): Daily Situation Report , no.62, September 30, 2006

↑ ^a ^b ^c Higher Relief Commission (official government agency): Lebanon under siege ( Memento of November 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 16, 2006

↑ ^a ^b UNIFIL press release of July 26, 2006 ( Memento of August 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)

↑ ^a ^b http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-08/07/content_658145.htm

↑ International Crisis Group: Israel / Hezbollah / Lebanon: Avoiding Renewed Conflict . ( Memento of September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Middle East Report, No. 59, November 1, 2006.

^ The Daily Star : Timeline of the July War 2006 ( September 28, 2006 memento in the Internet Archive ), accessed September 23, 2006

↑ ^a ^b The New Yorker : Watching Lebanon ( Memento June 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), August 21, 2006.

↑ Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR): Down the Memory Hole - Israeli contribution to conflict is forgotten by leading papers , July 28, 2006, engl.

↑ BBC: Israel captures pair in Gaza raid , June 24, 2006, accessed August 7, 2006.

↑ FAZ: Israel invades Lebanon , July 12, 2006

^ The New Yorker : The Battle For Lebanon ( Memento August 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), August 7, 2006

↑ ZNet: Noam Chomsky interviewed by Amy Goodman ( Memento August 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 15, 2006, engl. Retrieved Aug 8, 2006.

↑ SPON: " Hezbollah calls on Israel to exchange prisoners " , July 12, 2006

^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : Letter to the mother of the captured Israeli soldier , July 19, 2006

↑ Charles A. Landsmann: I will never apologize , Tagesspiegel , August 29, 2006

↑ Al-Jazeera : Lebanon divided over Hezbollah raid ( Memento from August 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 14, 2006

↑ https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5293789,00.html

↑ ^a ^b BBC : Day-by-day: Lebanon crisis - week one , July 19, 2006, accessed August 12, 2006

^ Attacks on Israel from Lebanese Territory. Israel Defense Forces , archived from the original on March 11, 2007 ; accessed on January 9, 2011 .

↑ The widow and the terrorist . In: Die Zeit , No. 36/2006

↑ USA Today: Hezbollah raid boosts group's image , July 12, 2006, engl.

↑ Haaretz : IDF releases names of two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah , July 13, 2006, engl.

↑ The Lebanon War was planned months in advance, news.ch, March 8, 2007

↑ "International troops only part of the solution", envoy Ilan Mor in the Leipziger Volkszeitung ( Memento from August 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), July 26, 2006 newsletter archive of the Israeli embassy
↑ Financial Times Deutschland : Israel's army marches into Lebanon ( memento of March 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), July 13, 2006
↑ CNN : Israel authorizes 'severe' response to abductions ( memento of July 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 12, 2006
↑ The Washington Post : Bush Supports Israel's Move Against Hezbollah , A10, July 19, 2006
↑ Bloomberg : Olmert Blames Lebanon for Attack, Sends in Troops . July 12, 2006
^ The Daily Star : Statement by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora ( August 11, 2006 memento in the Internet Archive ), July 17, 2006.
↑ ^a ^b The Daily Star : Siniora's Cabinet makes clear it had nothing to do with "what happened" ( Memento of July 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 13, 2006
↑ Reuters : Israel intensifies attacks - UN Security Council advises . July 14, 2006
↑ BBC : Hezbollah leader vows 'open war' , July 15, 2006
↑ Die Zeit / dpa : Bush does not want to exert any pressure on Israel ( Memento of July 17, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 14, 2006
^ Salzburger Nachrichten / APA : "Israel defends proceedings in Lebanon" , July 14, 2006
↑ BBC : Israel 'seizes' Hezbollah village , July 23, 2006
↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE : Israel's army captures Hezbollah base , July 25, 2006
↑ BBC : Dozens die in fresh Lebanon raids , July 19, 2006
↑ BBC : World 'backs Lebanon offensive' , July 27, 2006
↑ Israel Defense Forces : 7,000 Targets in Lebanon ( Memento of October 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), August 15, 2006 (accessed September 11, 2006)
↑ Kober (2008), p. 23.
↑ Kober (2008), p. 24.
↑ Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff: The Northern Command Ran Out of Targets . In: Haaretz , April 2, 2007. cited in VII. Israeli Conduct During the War Civilian Deaths . In: Why They Died: Civilian Casualties in Lebanon during the 2006 War . Human Rights Watch.
↑ The war in numbers . In: Jane's Defense Weekly , August 23, 2006.
↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : Hezbollah threatens Israel with 'open war' , July 14, 2006
↑ Alon Ben-David: "Hezbollah hits Israel's INS Hanit with anti-ship missile" ( Memento from March 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Jane's Defense Weekly. July 18, 2006 (English).
↑ Associated Press : Hezbollah rockets kill 9 in Israeli city , July 16, 2006
↑ Ynetnews : Hezbollah: One of the rockets is a Ra'ad 1 , July 16, 2006
↑ Jerusalem Post Hizbullah UAV shot down off Acre coast ( memento of April 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), August 7, 2006
^ StrategyWorld.com Iranian UAVs Over Israel ( August 13, 2006 memento in the Internet Archive ), August 9, 2006
^ The Guardian : Beirut bombarded hours before start of ceasefire , August 14, 2006
^ The Guardian : Israel steps up Lebanon offensive , July 13, 2006
^ The Daily Star : One way out: the Siniora plan , August 3, 2006
↑ AFP : "Uncertainty as Hezbollah backs Lebanon PM truce plan" , July 28, 2006
↑ EU Business / AFP: EU backs Lebanon PM's truce plan ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), July 28, 2006
↑ Ynetnews : EU enlists Syrian help with Lebanon crisis , August 4, 2006
↑ Petra (press agency): "King Affirms Support of Plan to Defuse Lebanese Crisis" , August 5, 2006
↑ TurkishPress.com: Lebanon ready to send 15,000 troops to south when Israel pulls out , August 7, 2006
↑ Jerusalem Post : "Olmert: 15,000 int'l troops needed," Aug. 3, 2006
^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : Supplies from Syria , August 20, 2006
↑ Israel holds on to reconnaissance flights over Lebanon . In: Die Welt , November 2, 2006
↑ Israel confirms the identity of Goldwasser and Regev , FAZ from
^ Frankfurter Rundschau : Israel withdraws almost all soldiers , October 2, 2006
↑ CNN: Israeli troops suffer largest one-day loss , July 27, 2006
^ The fight reflex . In: The Guardian , August 19, 2006
^ The Lebanese Communist Party mourns its heroes ( Memento of May 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Lebanese Communist Party, August 7, 2006
^ Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia pursuant to Security Council resolution 1676 (2006) . Monitoring Group on Somalia, October 16, 2006
↑ ^a ^b Michael Borgstede: The fairy tales of Hizbullah . In: FAZ , August 18, 2006, p. 36
↑ Reuters : Lebanon says Israeli air raid kills 40 , August 7, 2006, engl.
^ Spiegel-online: Israel admits errors , August 3, 2006
↑ ^a ^b Haaretz: IDF soldier killed, three others hurt, in South Lebanon ( memento of October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), August 23, 2006
↑ Handelsblatt: Israelis advance into Lebanon , August 19, 2006
↑ Israelis kill Hezbollah fighters . In: Die Welt , August 21, 2006
^ Israel Defense Forces : List of 180 dead Hezbollah terrorists released of an estimated 530 killed since start of fighting ( Memento of August 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), August 14, 2006
↑ https://www.haaretz.com/1.4936215
↑ Haaretz : Rockets strike Afula, Jezreel Valley for first time; Hezbollah: We can hit anywhere ( Memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), July 16, 2006
↑ ynet: First woman killed in Lebanon: Keren Tendler , 13 August 2006
↑ Haaretz : Three killed in Haifa rocket attacks; Katyusha kills 12 IDF reservists in Kfar Giladi ( memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), August 6, 2006
↑ CNN : Hezbollah rockets pound northern Israel , August 6, 2006
↑ Israel Defense Forces : ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: One officer killed, two wounded in Lebanon operation ), August 19, 2006@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www1.idf.il

^ Haaretz : IDF officer killed in commando raid in east Lebanon; Raid aimed to prevent arms deliveries to Hebzollah ( Memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), August 19, 2006

↑ Human Rights Watch : The terrible toll of the Israel - Lebanon conflict on civilians: ongoing human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law ( Memento of August 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), August 10, 2006

↑ Der Spiegel : Environmental disaster on Lebanon's coast , August 1, 2006

↑ Karin Wollschläger: Oil disaster and burning forests, daily mirror August 3, 2006

^ The Daily Star : Tehran powers up South with generators and fuel , September 12, 2006

↑ The Daily Star : MEA confident it can weather losses of $ 45 million , September 12, 2006

↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE : The violence is ruining everything for us , July 17, 2006

↑ Al Jazeera : Lebanon's tourism trade in ruins ( Memento of August 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 14, 2006

↑ Upper Austria News: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: War with Israel destroys Lebanon's hope for a stable economy ), July 19, 2006@1@ 2

↑ Handelsblatt : Beirut calls for help , August 22, 2006

↑ Die Presse: Lebanon: Economy on the Edge of Crash , July 18, 2006

^ Mideast War, by the numbers . In: The Washington Post , August 18, 2006. Retrieved May 11, 2011.

↑ Lebanon Refuses Contact With Israel . August 30, 2006. Retrieved December 8, 2015.

^ David Fickling: Amnesty report accuses Israel of war crimes . In: The Guardian , August 23, 2006. Archived from the original on August 24, 2006. Retrieved on September 3, 2006.

^ Crayons, glass, litter floor of Lebanese school . Reuters AlertNet. August 30, 2006. Archived from the original on October 25, 2006. Retrieved on September 3, 2006.

↑ N-TV.de: Israel's costly war ( memento of 28 May 2007 at the Internet Archive ) 14 August, 2006

↑ Tagesschau : Government participation of the right-wing national Lieberman - Israel's domestic policy is upside down ( Memento from July 22, 2010 on WebCite ), October 26, 2006

↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Serious Failure , April 30, 2007

↑ Security council endorses secretary-general's conclusion on israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as of 16 June , press text of the United Nations Security Council , June 18, 2000

↑ UN Resolution 1583 : Security Council condemns violence along Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon, Extends mandate of UNIFIL until July 31 , January 28, 2005

↑ UN Security Council: Document S / 2000/460 of May 22, 2000 ( Memento of January 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Haaretz : Kidnap of soldiers in July was Hezbollah's fifth attempt ( Memento of October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), September 19, 2006

↑ AP: Hezbollah promises Israel a blood-filled new year, Iran calls for Israel's end ( Memento of January 14, 2003 in the Internet Archive ), December 31, 1999

^ The Washington Post : Q&A: Said Hassan Nasrallah - What Hezbollah Will Do ( memento of April 23, 2002 in the Internet Archive ), February 20, 2000; S. B05 (see also pqasb.pqarchiver.com )

↑ Peter Philipp: The Interests Behind Hezbollah , Deutsche Welle , July 14, 2006

↑ Netzeitung.de: Syria sees Hezbollah aid as a 'matter of honor' ( Memento from August 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), August 15, 2006

^ Wiebke Fleig: Power factor Syria . Time online , June 14, 2007

^ ^A ^b The Daily Star : Cabinet shrugs off crisis, approves draft on Hariri tribunal , November 14, 2006

↑ Resolution 1559 of the UN Security Council ( Memento of November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in full text.

^ Official website of the Lebanese army: The Independance, a will confronts ... ( Memento of January 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), November 22, 2004

↑ Official position of the Islamic Republic of Iran on international and regional developments ( memento of March 26, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) (undated)

↑ Der Tagesspiegel : Iran has delivered everything from its weapons stores . ( Memento of December 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) July 19, 2006

↑ Christien Ultsch: Israel is right and still acts wrong . In: Die Presse , July 14, 2006

↑ Patrik Etschmayer: Same game - new players . nachrichten.ch, July 14, 2006

↑ Clemens Ronnefeldt: Iran conflict actors, interests and ways out of the escalation (status: April 4, 2006) ( Memento of May 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 154 kB)

↑ Uri Dan: Israel strikes belly of beast . In: New York Post , July 16, 2006

↑ Die Jüdische: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: the “Iranian trick” was successful . ) July 20, 2006@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.juedische.at

↑ Handelsblatt : Israeli soldiers invade Lebanon . July 19, 2006

↑ IRNA : President Lahoud thanks Iran's support for Lebanon ( Memento of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) July 19, 2006

^ Se'ew Schiff: Israel's War with Iran . In: Foreign Affairs , 85 (November-December 2006), pp. 23–31.

↑ Guardian Unlimited : United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hezbollah . July 19, 2006

↑ Tagesschau : "US government denies collusion with Israel" ( Memento from July 22, 2010 on WebCite ) July 19, 2006

↑ : USA accelerate arms deliveries. In: Handelsblatt . July 22, 2006.

↑ : USA supplies Israel with new weapons. In: RP-Online. July 23, 2006.

↑ Seymour Hersh: Watching Lebanon. Washington's interests in Israel's. ( June 15, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ) The New Yorker online, August 14, 2006.

↑ Focus Online : Ahmadinejad steps in , July 14, 2006

↑ ArabicNews.com: Iran condemns Israeli attack on Lebanon ( Memento of August 10, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 13, 2006

↑ Islamic Republic News Agency: Asefi strongly condemns Zionist aggression in Lebanon ( Memento of July 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 13, 2006

^ Spiegel Online : Olmert sets conditions for the end of the attacks , July 14, 2006

^ UN: Press Release SC / 8181 , September 2, 2004

↑ Chron.com: Syrian Diplomat Blames Israel for Violence Syrian Diplomat Blames Israel for Violence , July 12, 2006

^ Developments in Israel-Lebanon Crisis . In: Forbes Magazine , July 13, 2006

↑ Middle East News / Deutsche Presse-Agentur : ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Arabs divided over Hezbollah's role in Lebanon crisis ), July 15, 2006@1@ 2

↑ Al-Jazeera : World divided over Mideast conflict ( Memento from July 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), July 16, 2006

↑ UN troops for Lebanon? In: Die Welt , July 18, 2006

↑ A blue helmet mission in southern Lebanon is becoming more and more likely . In: Die Welt , July 18, 2006

↑ Tages-Anzeiger : Switzerland calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon ( memento of January 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), July 20, 2006

^ Chronicle of the year 2006 ( memento of July 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), sheets for German and international politics

↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Lebanon Conference gave us the green light , July 27, 2006

↑ EU accuses Israel of misinterpreting the Rome Declaration . Spiegel Online , July 27, 2006

↑ Schaffhauser Nachrichten : Israel's leadership on the rise politically , July 25, 2006

↑ Spiegel Online : Israel plans uninhabited buffer zone in Lebanon , July 17, 2006

↑ Tagesschau : “Peace movement remains silent on attacks on Lebanon - Is Israel's left caught in the patriotism trap?” ( Memento from July 22, 2010 on WebCite ), August 3, 2006

^ Gush Schalom : Is Beirut Burning? , July 22, 2006

↑ Uri Avnery : Is Beirut Burning? ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), July 22, 2006

↑ Tagesschau : The "Road Map" leads to Armageddon . ( Memento July 22, 2010 on WebCite ) August 5, 2006

↑ CBS News: CBS News: Gingrich Can't Wait For World War III , July 21, 2006

↑ ^a ^b Keshev website. Summary of the report War to the Last Moment - The Israeli Media in the Second Lebanon War . Archived from the original on August 26, 2013 ; accessed on October 14, 2010 (English).

^ War to the Last Moment - The Israeli Media in the Second Lebanon War. (PDF) Keshev, July 2008, p. 5 , archived from the original on November 24, 2015 ; accessed on November 19, 2014 (English).

↑ Buergenthal, Doehring, Kokott, Maier: Basic features of international law . 2nd edition, CF Müller, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-8252-1511-3 , pp. 1f and pp. 35-53

↑ Knut Ipsen: Israel violates international law, and Hezbollah does not even respect it . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , July 31, 2006

^ Clemens Wergin: Crisis in the Middle East - The Front of the Terrorists . ( Memento from July 17, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 14, 2006

↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung : In an interview: Legal scholar Michael Bothe - "As a legal term, 'war' has had its day" , August 3, 2006

↑ HRW : Civilians under Assault - Hezbollah's Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War , August 2007

^ ^A ^b ^c Georg Baltissen: the daily newspaper: Amnesty accuses . In: taz , August 24, 2006

↑ medico international: Lebanon: Refugees report shelling by Israeli helicopters , August 2, 2006

↑ Klaus Boldt: Lebanon: Aid Convoys Under Fire - NGOs Demand Humanitarian Corridors . ( Memento of June 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Development policy online, July 26, 2006

↑ Focus-online: Amnesty: 'Hezbollah targeted civilians' , September 14, 2006

↑ Naharnet: Lebanon accuses Israel of Using Internationally Prohibited Weapons Against Civilians . July 16, 2006

↑ ^a ^b BBC: Israel urged to shun cluster bomb , July 25, 2006

↑ Use of chemical weapons in Lebanon? IPPNW demands an explanation . IPPNW , press release of July 25, 006

↑ Saar-Echo: Is Israel throwing phosphorus in Lebanon and Gaza? July 30, 2006

↑ ^a ^b Meron Rappaport: IDF commander: We fired more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon , Haaretz , September 12, 2006

↑ Meron Rappaport: Israel admits using phosphorus bombs during war in Lebanon , Haaretz , October 22, 2006

↑ Tagesschau.de : Israel used phosphorus bombs . ( Memento from July 22, 2010 on WebCite ) October 23, 2006

↑ Haaretz: UN confirms IDF used phosphorus, but not uranium, in Lebanon ( Memento of February 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), November 8, 2006

^ John E. Pike: Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) . GlobalSecurity.org, October 12, 2006

↑ Haaretz : Italian TV: Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip ( Memento from February 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), October 12, 2006

↑ Tagesschau : Israel defends the use of cluster bombs ( memento from July 22, 2010 on WebCite ), July 25, 2006

↑ taz: Shocking and utterly immoral , September 1, 2006, p. 9

↑ Meron Rappaport: Israel opted for cheaper, unsafe cluster bombs in Lebanon war ( Memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Haaretz , November 14, 2006

^ Higher Relief Commission: Daily Situation Report , No. 35, Aug. 30, 2006; FAZ : UN criticizes the use of cluster bombs , August 31, 2006; The Guardian : Cluster bombing of Lebanon 'immoral' UN official tells Israel , August 31, 2006

↑ ^a ^b MACCSL report November 2006 ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

↑ ^a ^b MACCSL: Casualties (civilian & demining) in South Lebanon from 14 Aug 06- to 19 Dec-06 ( Memento from May 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

^ AI: WORRY ABOUT SECURITY: Civilian population in the south of Lebanon , UA-No: UA-237/2006, September 1, 2006

^ ^A ^b HRW: Lebanon / Israel: Hezbollah Hit Israel with Cluster Munitions During Conflict , October 19, 2006

↑ Meron Rappaport: Peretz's office admits 'irregularities' in use of cluster bombs during war ( Memento of October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Ha'aretz , November 22, 2006

↑ United Nations : World community cannot afford another year like 2006 in Middle East, says Under-Secretary-General, briefing Security Council , January 25, 2007

↑ https://www.volksblatt.li/nachrichten/International/Ppolitik/sda/48646/israelische-armee-rechtfert-streubomben- Einsatz-in- libanon

^ Al Jazeera : Israel rules cluster bomb use legal . ( Memento of December 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) December 24, 2007 (English)

↑ Israel informs about cluster bombs in Lebanon. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 21, 2009. Retrieved May 21, 2009 .

↑ Human Rights Watch : Why They Died , 119–119. September 2007 Volume 19, No. 5 (E) (PDF, 2.5 MB, accessed on September 17, 2007)

↑ Democracy Now! : Headlines for July 31, 2006 ( Memento from November 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), July 31, 2006

↑ BBC News: Qana bombs an Israeli 'war crime' (English), July 31, 2006

↑ Human Rights Watch: Hezbollah Rocket Attacks on Haifa Designed to Kill Civilians , July 18, 2006 (English)

↑ Yiftah S.Shapir: Middle East Military Balance ( Memento August 3, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) on: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University

↑ Tel Aviv University: Israel ( Memento of May 30, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf), (as of September 4, 2006)

↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/middleeast/22military.html

^ International Crisis Group: Old Games - New Rules: Conflict on the Israel-Lebanon Border. ( Memento of November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Middle East Report N ° 7, Brussels November 18, 2002, page 23

↑ Jack Urso: Summary, MANPAD-SAM THREAT . Military Information Services, December 31, 2003

↑ Shmuel L. Gordon: The Vulture and The Snake - Counter-Guerrilla Air Warfare: The War in Southern Lebanon . ( Memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Mideast Security and Policy Studies , No. 39, July 1998

↑ ^a ^b Anthony H. Cordesman: Israel's Uncertain Military Performance and Strategic Goals in Lebanon ( Memento of 11 July 2007 at the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 320 kB), CSIS , July 25, 2006. Seen on 18 July 2007

^ Missiles neutralizing Israeli tanks. Associated Press via Yahoo , accessed Aug. 4, 2006 .

↑ Computerized weaponry and high morale. The Guardian , accessed August 11, 2006 .

^ ^A ^b Israel to Moscow: Hezbollah used Russian-made missiles against IDF. Haaretz , archived from the original on October 1, 2007 ; Retrieved August 18, 2006 (English).

↑ Russia denies sending anti-tank weapons to Hezbollah - ministry. RIA Novosti, accessed August 10, 2006 .

↑ Alfred Hackensberger: The Hezbollah arms stores are full again . telepolis , November 26, 2006
^ Matthews, Matt M .; We Were Caught Unprepared: The 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War , United States Army Combined Arms Center Combat Studies Institute Press, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 2011, S61.f
^ Both Hezbollah and Israeli Leaders Declare Victory . Retrieved March 19, 2018.
^ Israeli Gains in the Second Lebanon War . Retrieved March 19, 2018.
↑ Anthony H. Cordesman: "Preliminary 'Lessons' of the Israeli-Hezbollah War" ( Memento of July 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf; 823 kB), CSIS , 2nd rev, September 11, 2006. July 2007
^ Matt M. Matthews: We Were Caught Unprepared: The 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War ( January 18, 2009 memento on the Internet Archive ), US Army Combined Arms Center, Combat Studies Institute Press, Fort Leavenworth 2008. ISBN 978-0-16 -079899-3
^ US doubts Israeli figures about damage of air war . In: The Washington Times , July 21, 2006. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
↑ Cambanis (2007), p. 69-70

Lebanon War 2006

prehistory

course

The conflict began on July 12, 2006

Israeli attacks

Rocket fire from Hezbollah

Lebanon's position in the conflict

armistice

Warring parties

Victims and consequences of war

Victims in Lebanon

Victims in Israel

Victims of other nationalities

Victims among members of UN units

Environmental impact

Economic Impact on Lebanon

Economic Impact on Israel

Domestic Impact on Israel

background

Hezbollah

Role of Iran and Syria

Role of the United States

diplomacy

International reactions

Lebanon Conference

UN resolution

The public debate

In Israel

Worldwide

Reporting by Israeli media

Aspects of international law

Possible war crimes

Phosphorus bombs

Cluster bombs

Air raid on Cana

Shrapnel bullets against civilians

Military aspects

Comparison of combat strength

Israel

Hezbollah

analysis

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence