Lebanon

From Infoshop OpenWiki

Map of conflict as of July 14, 2006. In yellow is the Israeli blockade, in red area regions of active conflict.

Lebanon (Arabic: لبنان Lubnān), officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a small, largely mountainous country in the Middle East, located at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south, with a narrow coastline along its western edge.

The country has once again been thrown into military conflict that is largely over events which have transpired outside its borders. The Lebanese government has been placed in a precarious position with Israel demanding they control Hizbullah, depsite the fact that Hizbullah's militia is larger and better organized than the government's own forces. Attempted constraint of the group could quite possibly reignite civil war in the country.

Israel/Lebanon Crisis

For more perspectives on the crisis visit the discussion page

The recent Israel/Lebanon conflict could be traced back decades. The country has fallen victim to the Arab-Israel crisis for over half a century. Most media reports trace the crisis back to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah or a similar action taken by Palestinian militants even earlier. By doing this important background information is left out.

Since the start of the second intifada, Hamas, al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Hizbullah have continually launched rocket and mortar attacks (typically Qassam and Katyusha missiles) against Israeli cities as a form of resistance to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, as well as the Sheeba Farms (recognized as Syrian territory by the UN, but regared as Lebanese by Hizbullah). The towns of Kiryat Shemona and Sderot have lived under a constant hail of rocket fire for five years, with over 1,000 Qassams having landed within Israel as of June 9, 2006, killing a total of 13 Israelis. According to Norman Finkelstein, as of September 2005, Israel has launched between 7,000-9,000 estimated artillery attacks on Gaza, killing 80 Palestinians [1].

On May 30, 2006, after a Qassam rocket landed roughly 50 meters from his home in Sderot, newly-appointed Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz vowed to his neighbors to bring the rocket attacks upon their town to a halt [2]. Soon after Israel began targetting Palestinian rocket launch sites in Gaza, for the most part striking at empty fields along the Gaza-Israel border [3]. As Palestinian militants were deterred from those areas, they moved into civilian centers from which they continued to launch their attacks into Israel.

On June 9, eight Palestinians were killed and 32 injured in an explosion on the Gaza beach. The attack was initially linked to Israeli artillery fire [4], though after meeting with Israeli defense officials, Human Rights Watch conceded that explosion may have been the result of unexploded ordinance and not an intentional attack upon civilians [5]. Nonetheless, on June 13, a missile attack on a highway in Gaza killed 11 people and wounded another 30; and on June 20 another missile attack from Israeli forces killed three children and wounded 15 more people [6].

According to a report in the June 30, 2006, issue of the Guardian [7], Israeli troops entered Gaza days before the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit and abducted two Palestinian 'militiamen'. It was later reported in the July 9, 2006, issue of Haaretz [8] (and then was repeated by Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now [9], thus drawing more widespread attention to the report), that the incident took place on June 24, and involved two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. Their identities are unknown.

On June 25, Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli military post in Kerem Shalom, outside of Gaza, and abducted a 20-year old Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Three militant groups claimed responsibility for Shalit's abduction - including the Hamas military wing Izzedine al Qassam, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam. [10] The militants later demanded the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit. The Israeli Prime Minister has refused to negotiate, though Public Security Minister Avi Dichter hinted on July 7 that a prisoner exchange would eventually be agreed. [[11]] This proposal is supported by Shalit's father. [[12]] Israel responded to the Shalit abduction with escalating attacks on civilian infrastructure and political institutions in Gaza, and the abduction of Palestinian parliamentarians. The assault culminated in a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza for the first time since Israel's withdrawal in August of 2005.

On July 11, the Islamic militant group Hizbullah conducted a raid across the Israeli border, capturing two Israeli soldiers, and drawing an Israeli tank into a booby-trap in southern Lebanon. Buried explosives incinerated the tank, killing eight Israeli soldiers. Hizbullah, which is armed and funded by Iran, holds the greatest number of seats of any single faction in the Lebanese parliament, much to the chagrin of Lebanon's secular Muslim and Christian populations. Some analysts have suggested that Iran instigated the attack to draw attention away from its nuclear ambitions. Others, such as David Hirst [13] have suggested that Hizbullah was motivated by solidarity with Palestinians under attack in Gaza. The Lebanese Foundation for Peace [14] has claimed that the two soldiers are being held in the Iranian embassy in Lebanon.

On July 12, Israel retaliated, launching massive airstrikes on Lebanon, targetting civilian infrastructure it claims is utilized by Hizbullah, including bridges, roads, a mosque, a community center, and the Beirut International Airport, while the Israeli navy has blockaded Lebanon's ports. According to the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, since the attacks began, Israel has killed over 300 Lebanese civilians [15]. The UN has stated that both Hizbullah and Israel's actions may classify as war crimes under international law [16].

Local residents of Ghobeiry located in the Dahyeh region point to the extensive damage caused by Israeli missile strike on the area during the night on Thursday, July 13th.

Israel has refused to negotiate with Hizbullah, who are demanding the release of Lebanese prisioners from Israeli prisons (including Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese national who was jailed by Israel in 1979 for the murder of three Israeli civilians in their home [17]) and Israel's withdrawl from the Sheeba Farms. Israel has rejected Lebanese calls for a ceasefire, demanding an immediate release of its soldiers and the implementation of UN Resolution 1559, which calls for the deployment of Lebanese troops to southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hizbullah. Siniora has expressed his interest in compliance and is seeking international support to disarm Hizbullah [18], but desires a ceasefire in the interim. Others have expressed growing fears that Hizbullah will strike at Jewish populations elsewhere in the world, as it has in the past. [19].

In the meantime, though angered by the scale of Israel's retaliation and the suffering inflicted upon the Lebanese, Arab leaders have layed blame for the current flare-up squarely at Hizbullah's feet [20]. Some suspect this charge is motivated by Muslim sectarianism, however, and not a true recognition of Israel's right to self-defense [21].

Groups from around the world are calling for various actions to be taken to stop the mounting violence in the region.