Summary
The IDF’s March 14, 1978 invasion of South Lebanon, launched three days after Dalal al-Mughrabi’s bus hijacking, in which a 25,000-strong force occupied South Lebanon except Sur, approximately 285,000 people fled and some 2,000 died, in Parkinson’s account (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.67-68).
Details
- The operation’s aims, in Schiff and Ya’ari 1984, 24 as quoted, were to destroy the PLO bases that were the source of harassment to settlements in the Galilee and of raids farther inland, and to extend the territory under the control of Lebanese Major Saad Haddad and the local militia he had recruited among the Christian population — Israel’s surrogate and client force in South Lebanon (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.67-68).
- The UN Security Council responded with Resolutions 425 and 426, which established the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and called for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces; Haddad’s militia greatly restricted UNIFIL’s access, and the decision to base the force at Naqoura restricted its patrols of the interior (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.68).
- The Free Lebanon Army continuously abused Shi’a civilians in its zone of control (Fisk 2002, 137-55, as cited) (Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, PDF p.68).
Related pages
Beyond the Lines — Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon, Dalal al-Mughrabi, Lebanon invasion 1982, Palestine Liberation Organization