An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir September 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 20 | BY COMDT KEVIN MCDONALD (RETD) T he second Israel-Lebanon war is believed to have killed between 1,191 and 1,300 Lebanese (mostly civilians), and 165 Israelis (including 44 civilians). It severely damaged Leba- non's civil infrastructure and displaced approximately one million Lebanese and 300,000–500,000 Israelis. The conflict commenced at 09:00hrs on the 12th July 2006, when Hezbollah fighters fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for a well-planned attack on two armoured Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the technical fence. In the ambush of the patrol three IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) soldiers were killed and two were abducted and taken into Lebanon. Five more IDF soldiers were killed just inside Lebanon in a failed rescue attempt. Hezbollah demanded the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel in exchange for the abducted soldiers. Israel refused and responded with airstrikes and artillery fire on Hezbollah targets and Lebanese civilian infrastructure, including Beirut's international airport, and imposed an air and naval blockade. By evening on the 12th July, the IDF had struck all Hezbollah positions along the Blue Line, destroying most of them. They also targeted most of the bridges south and north of the Litani River, most likely in an attempt to restrict the transfer north of the cap- tured soldiers. When the IDF launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah fired more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the IDF in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions. This conflict provided UN peacekeepers in the area with a sharp and sudden realization of the complexities of peacekeeping in a dangerous and volatile environment. As we attempted to come to terms with the intensity of the conflict that raged all around us, those of us with families in the coastal city of Tyre naturally found our thoughts turning to them. Phone calls were made in the lulls between shelling (incoming artillery during a phone conversation with a concerned wife is not an ideal way to try to assure loved ones that everything will work out all right). We scoured online media for the latest information, while also keeping OGL (Observer Group Lebanon) Operations updated on the location of all air and artillery strikes. By the end of day one we were all on radio checks every 20 mins, 24/7, and slowly we began to take stock. This did not look like it would be a repeat of operations 'Accountability' and 'Grapes of Wrath', in 1993 and 1996 respectively; two very similar seven-day intensive air campaigns designed to create a refugee problem for the Lebanese government. Life on Patrol Base (PB) Mar settled into what would become Observer Group Lebanon and the 2006 War (Part 1) The Second Lebanon War, 2006. Photo: Flash 90

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