The History of Zionist Attacks on Lebanon
Israel’s attacks on Lebanon did not begin in 1978 or 1982. They go back to 1948, when Israeli forces crossed into southern Lebanon during Operation Hiram. In Hula, Zionist occupation troops carried out a massacre whose reported death toll varies across sources, but it is widely recognized as one of the earliest mass killings committed by Israeli forces on Lebanese soil. Although Israeli forces withdrew after the 1949 armistice agreement with Lebanon, the ceasefire did not end the violence. Southern Lebanese villages continued to face raids, shelling, and repeated violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
By the 1960s, Zionist aggression had expanded beyond border incidents into struggles over land, water, and control of the frontier. In 1965, tensions rose around the Hasbani and Wazzani waters as part of the wider regional conflict over the Jordan River headwaters. That same October, Israeli forces raided the villages of Hula and Meiss al Jabal, destroying homes and water reservoirs after crossing the ceasefire line into Lebanese territory. Then, after the June 1967 war, Israel occupied the Shebaa Farms area when it seized the Golan Heights, leaving the territory under occupation and dispute ever since.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, Israeli attacks on Lebanon became more open, frequent, and destructive. On December 28, 1968, Israeli commandos violently attacked Beirut International Airport and destroyed at least a dozen civilian aircraft in one of the most brazen assaults on Lebanese civilian infrastructure. In 1970 and 1971, repeated Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon led the UN Security Council to adopt Resolutions 279, 280, and 295 demanding withdrawal and calling for an end to the attacks. In February 1973, Israeli forces struck the Palestinian refugee camps of Nahr al Bared and Beddawi near Tripoli, killing and injuring civilians. Two months later, on April 9 to 10, 1973, Israeli commandos entered Beirut and assassinated three leading Palestinian figures in the Verdun area.
The violence escalated further in March 1978 with Operation Litani, when Israel launched a full-scale invasion of southern Lebanon and advanced to the Litani River. The operation caused large-scale civilian death, injury, and displacement, and led to the creation of UNIFIL under Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426. Four years later, on June 6, 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon again, this time pushing all the way to Beirut, besieging the capital, and forcing the PLO leadership to evacuate under international supervision. Israel then maintained an occupation and proxy-controlled “security zone” in southern Lebanon until its withdrawal in May 2000.
The 1982 invasion also set the stage for the Sabra and Shatila massacre, one of the most infamous atrocities of the war. The number killed remains disputed, with estimates ranging from around 800 to more than 3,000, but the victims were overwhelmingly Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. In 2006, Israel launched another major war on Lebanon. According to figures cited by the ICRC and UN reporting, the war killed about 1,191 people in Lebanon, injured 4,409, and displaced more than 900,000.
The most recent phase began on October 8, 2023, when Israel started sustained strikes on southern Lebanon that later expanded to other parts of the country. Amnesty International documented Israeli use of white phosphorus in southern Lebanon in October 2023, including attacks that injured civilians and damaged homes. On January 2, 2024, an Israeli strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed Hamas deputy Saleh al Arouri, marking another major escalation inside the Lebanese capital.
