Bombing of Lebanon (July 1981)

Bombing of Lebanon
	Part of Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon (the Lebanese Civil War)
Date	17 July 1981
Location	Lebanon
Belligerents
Israel	PLO Fatah ; DFLP ; ALF ;
Casualties and losses
1 aircraft shot down; (claimed by Syria and the PLO; denied by Israel)	123–300+ killed; (Palestinian and Lebanese claims)

Last updated April 27, 2024

In July 1981, Israeli warplanes began bombarding a number of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) targets across Lebanon, mostly in Beirut and in the south of the country. This was in response to several Palestinian rocket attacks on northern Israel during the Lebanese Civil War.

Buildings, bridges and other infrastructure across Lebanon were either destroyed or badly damaged, and according to Palestinian and Lebanese reports, the operation left from 123 to over 300 killed. Israel vowed to continue fighting the PLO until the latter ceased to launch rockets into Israeli territory, while the PLO said that the bombing would not go unpunished.

Background

The air raids came in response to continuous Palestinian rocket attacks into northern Israel for a third consecutive day. Four women were injured when a Palestinian rocket hit a maternity hospital in Nahariya, as well as three other town residents. This followed the significant amount of Soviet weaponry delivered to the Palestinians, including Katyusha rocket launchers.^[2]^[3] Air strikes were reported shortly after the Lebanese radio announcement that the country's leftist forces had called for the establishment of a Soviet SA-6 anti-aircraft missile system in Beirut.^[1]

Events

Bombings and damage

The bombing of Beirut on 17 July lasted between 20 and 30 minutes, and was mostly centered on predominantly Muslim districts, such as Rue Baghdadi in the Fakehani district west of the city. Israeli warplanes demolished a seven-story apartment building and four to five others were badly damaged. Israel said that the operation targeted the headquarters of PLO leader Yasser Arafat and of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), claiming that the Israeli military had managed to destroy the offices of some of the guerrilla groups that form the PLO, including one Fatah and two DFLP offices. The PLO stated that Arafat's headquarters were unharmed and that only one DFLP office sustained some damage.^[2]^[1]

In addition to Beirut, the port city of Sidon as well as the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps were also attacked. A number of bridges across the Litani and Zahrani rivers,^[2] including a vital bridge south of Sidon,^[1] Israeli gunboat shelling along the coast between the Saadiyat village in the south and the Zahrani oil terminal had destroyed 200 yards of the main coastal road in the area. The Trans-Arabian Pipeline refinery was also damaged, and a part of it was in flames.^[2]^[3]

Israel claimed that all of its jets returned home safely, while the PLO and Syria claimed that a plane had been shot down. A Damascus radio report said that the aircraft had been downed by Syrian ground forces in southeastern Lebanon, and that it had crashed near Marjayoun.^[2]

Casualties

Precise casualty figures were not immediately available. There were both Lebanese and Palestinian fatalities, as well as a French volunteer, Nicolas Guillaume Royer, who was killed at a DFLP office. Two Lebanese newspapers published lists of the dead and wounded.^[1] Palestinian reports claimed that at least 123 were killed and 550 were wounded, while Lebanon's police put the death toll in Beirut alone at around 90. Lebanon's UN spokesman said that 300 people or more may have been killed.^[2]

Reactions

Arafat said in a statement: "The bloodshed today will not go unpunished, and it will only increase our will to keep up the struggle against the American and Zionist criminals." Arafat also told Arab states that he needed "their swords, not their blessing". Israel stressed that it had acted in self-defense, with Prime Minister Menachem Begin warning that the Israeli military would no longer refrain from attacking Palestinian guerrilla targets, even if they were stationed in civilian areas. Begin added that the PLO had "no immunity" anymore, and that if civilians were hit, it would be their fault. At Lebanon's request, the United Nations Security Council held a two-hour emergency meeting, after which it demanded Israel to cease its bombing operations. The United States announced it would delay the planned shipment of F-16 fighter jets to Israel in response to the events.^[2]^[3]

Related Research Articles

Yasser Arafat, also popularly known by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004 and president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from 1994 to 2004. Ideologically an Arab nationalist and a socialist, Arafat was a founding member of the Fatah political party, which he led from 1959 until 2004.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command or PFLP-GC is a Palestinian nationalist militant organisation based in Syria.

The 1982 Lebanon War began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) operating in southern Lebanon and the Israeli military that had caused civilian casualties on both sides of the border. The military operation was launched after gunmen from the Abu Nidal Organization attempted to assassinate Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin blamed Abu Nidal's enemy, the PLO, for the incident, and used the incident as a casus belli for the invasion.

The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and also led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.

Black September, also known as the Jordanian Civil War, was an armed conflict between Jordan, led by King Hussein, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by chairman Yasser Arafat. The main phase of the fighting took place between 16 and 27 September 1970, though certain aspects of the conflict continued until 17 July 1971.

The War of the Camps, was a subconflict within the 1984–1990 phase of the Lebanese Civil War, in which the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut were besieged by the Shia Amal militia.

The Rejectionist Front or Front of the Palestinian Forces Rejecting Solutions of Surrender was a political coalition formed in 1974 by radical Palestinian factions who rejected the Ten Point Program adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in its 12th Palestinian National Congress (PNC) session.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli–Lebanese conflict</span> Clashes involving Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Hezbollah and the PLO

The Israeli–Lebanese conflict, or the South Lebanon conflict, is a series of military clashes involving Israel, Lebanon and Syria, the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as various militias and militants acting from within Lebanon. The conflict peaked in the 1980s, during the Lebanese Civil War, and has abated since.

The South Lebanon conflict, designated by Israel as the Security Zone in Lebanon Campaign, was a protracted armed conflict that took place in southern Lebanon from 1985 to 2000. It saw fighting between Israel and the Catholic Christian-dominated South Lebanon Army (SLA) against Hezbollah-led Shia Muslim and left-wing guerillas within the Israeli-occupied "Security Zone"; the SLA had military and logistical support from the Israel Defense Forces over the course of the conflict and operated under the jurisdiction of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon provisional administration, which succeeded the earlier Israeli-backed State of Free Lebanon. It can also refer to the continuation of the earlier conflict in this region involving the growing Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon against Israel following the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Jordan after Black September. Historical tensions between Palestinian refugees and Lebanese factions contributed another layer to the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), which saw the Maronite-led Lebanese Front and the Shia Amal Movement at war with the PLO. Hence, the South Lebanon conflict can partly be seen as an extension of the civil war that ended in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lebanese National Resistance Front</span> Leftist militant alliance in the Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese National Resistance Front, best known by its Arabic acronym, ‘Jammoul’ (جمول), was a leftist alliance active in Lebanon in the 1980s. It acted as a successor to the Lebanese National Movement, which ceased to exist after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian fedayeen</span> Palestinian militants

Palestinian fedayeen are militants or guerrillas of a nationalist orientation from among the Palestinian people. Most Palestinians consider the fedayeen to be "freedom fighters", while most Israelis consider them to be "terrorists".

Ainab, is a town on the western slopes of Mount Lebanon overlooking Beirut. It is in the Aley District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Beirut, on the road South from Aley.

The Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners (FLLF), or Front pour la Libération du Liban des Étrangers (FLLE) in French, was a formerly obscure underground militant organization that surfaced in Lebanon at the early 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon</span> 1968–1982 conflict

The Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon was a multi-sided armed conflict initiated by Palestinian militants against Israel in 1968 and against Lebanese Christian militias in the mid-1970s. It served as a major catalyst for the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. Fighting between the Palestinians and the Christian militias lasted until the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which led to the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Lebanese territory. While the PLO relocated to Tunisia in the aftermath of Israel's invasion, other Palestinian militant factions, such as the Syria-based PFLP–GC, continued to carry out low-level operations from Syrian-occupied Lebanon. After 1982, the insurgency is considered to have faded in light of the inter-Lebanese Mountain War and the Israel–Hezbollah conflict, the latter of which took place for the duration of the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization, the largest being Fatah.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and Maoist organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dīmūqrāṭiyya. It is a member organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Alliance of Palestinian Forces and the Democratic Alliance List.

During the 1982 Lebanon War, the city of Beirut was besieged by Israel following the breakdown of the ceasefire that had been imposed by the United Nations amidst the Lebanese Civil War. Beginning in mid-June, the two-month-long siege resulted in the expulsion of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from Beirut and the rest of Lebanon.

The Battle of Tripoli was a major battle during the middle of the Lebanese Civil War in late 1983. It took place in the northern coastal city of Tripoli between pro-Syrian Palestinian militant factions and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Yassir Arafat. It resulted in the withdrawal of PLO and mostly ended their involvement in the war.

References

1 2 3 4 5 "The Bombing of Beirut". Journal of Palestine Studies. 11 (1). University of California Press: 218–225. 1981. doi:10.1525/jps.1981.11.1.00p0366x.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Farrell, William E. (18 July 1981). "123 reported dead, 550 injured as Israelis bomb P.L.O. targets in Beirut and South Lebanon". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
1 2 3 "Israel Air Strikes in Beirut". ABC News. 17 July 1981. Retrieved 30 January 2015.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[JPS-1] 1 2 3 4 5 "The Bombing of Beirut". Journal of Palestine Studies. 11 (1). University of California Press: 218–225. 1981. doi:10.1525/jps.1981.11.1.00p0366x.

[NYT-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Farrell, William E. (18 July 1981). "123 reported dead, 550 injured as Israelis bomb P.L.O. targets in Beirut and South Lebanon". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2015.

[ABC-3] 1 2 3 "Israel Air Strikes in Beirut". ABC News. 17 July 1981. Retrieved 30 January 2015.

[1]

[2]

[3]