The Lebanon War 1982-1985

After being expelled from Jordan during Black September in 1970, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) moved its base of operations to southern Lebanon. The Lebanese inhabitants resented having their land becoming a battlefield and Israel supported opponents of the PLO after the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975. Israel also conducted retaliatory ground operations in Lebanon in response to PLO attacks. Meanwhile, Syria had intervened in the civil war and, after a confrontation with Israel in 1981, stationed surface-to-air missiles in the Bekaa Valley, something Israel considered unacceptable. At the same time, the PLO began forming a regular standing army out of the guerrilla forces under its command. By then, the Israeli government was already planning an offensive and waiting for a pretext.

When Palestinian terrorists attempted to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in London (UK), the Israeli government authorized a limited invasion that was to advance no further than 40km into Lebanon, it was to be limited to 24 hours duration and the Israeli forces were not to attack the Syrian forces in Lebanon. The faction of the Israeli government responsible for the conduct of the operation as well as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had planned and prepared for a much more ambitious operation intended to destroy the PLO. Israel launched its offensive on June 6, 1982.

Because it was unlikely the government as a whole would have supported the actual plan, the Israeli advance unfolded in an ad hoc and disorganized manner which hindered operations. There were three axes of advance: in the west the IDF advanced along the coast toward Sidon, in the center a force advanced westward (ultimately towards) Sidon while in the east the Israelis advance northward into Syrian held territory. In southern Lebanon, the only serious resistance to the invasion came from the PLO fighters. The Syrian forces engaged the IDF and suffered heavy losses in air combat but they did hold the Israeli advance to the Beirut-Damascus highway. Syria and Israel agreed to a cease-fire on June 11th. A cease-fire between Israel and the PLO, agreed on June 12th, failed to hold and the IDF advanced to the outskirts of Beirut by June 14th, trapping about 6,000 PLO fighters (including its leader, Yasir Arafat) in West Beirut.

The Israeli siege of Beirut last for more than two months including intense shelling and air attacks. An agreement was reached, through American mediation, on the evacuation of the PLO forces and Syrian remnants from West Beirut under a cease-fire supervised by a multinational force composed of French, Italian and American troops. PLO troops were to be dispersed to several Arab host countries. US Marines arrived on August 25th and by September 10th they departed Beirut, as had the PLO. Victory for the Israelis seemed to be at hand. But the Lebanese president-elect was assassinated on September 14th and Israeli forces reentered West Beirut with the declared intention of preventing sectarian violence. Two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila, which were surrounded by the IDF, were then entered by a Lebanese militia loyal to the assassinated president and massacre ensued.

The international outcry that followed led to the redeployment of the multinational forces, now including British, French, Italian and American troops about September 29th. At first, this apparently neutral force was welcomed as a replacement for the Israeli presence. By 1983, however, the overt support for the Maronite segment of the Lebanese population resulted in the Druze and Shiite segments turning on the multinational force. A car bomb destroyed the US embassy in Beirut on April 18th causing numerous casualties. Shelling of multinational force position began by August and continued into September. On October 23rd, suicide bombers struck the American and French barracks killing hundreds. Retaliation followed but the Multi-National Force was isolated and served no purpose anymore. In February 1984, the forces withdrew.

Israeli forces remained in Lebanon as a bargaining chip to negotiate a Syrian withdrawal. Waiting for such a political agreement resulted in the IDF fighting a different kind of war. The warring Lebanese factions began to target the IDF which was now a static and defensive garrison. Hopes of a political settlement faded after an agreement proposed by the US and agreed to by the new president of Lebanon was rejected by Syria and the other Lebanese factions. In November 1983, shortly after the American and French bombings, the Israeli headquarters in Tyre was destroyed by another car bomb and this attack signaled the beginning of a guerrilla war on Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon. The Israeli government changed too. And the new leadership sought to withdraw the IDF as quickly as possible. Staged withdrawals were carried out and by June 10, 1985, the last Israeli combat unit had pulled out.

Notes

[1] Correlates of War (CoW) provides an start date of April 21, 1982 to the inter-state war (Israel versus Syria); the intra-state war (France, Lebanon, US versus Druze, Shiites) begins on April 18, 1983. Clodfelter chooses June 4, 1982 because of the air strikes; he separately dates the Multi-National Force engagement as starting on August 25, 1982. The conventional initiation date is June 6, 1982 (the ground invasion by the IDF); the Multi-National Force intervention is generally considered a part of the war as is the period up to the Israeli withdrawal.

[2] CoW provides an end date for the inter-state war of September 15, 1982 (the day the IDF occupied Beirut); the intra-state war ends on February 29, 1984 (the withdrawl of the Multi-National Force). Clodfelter is ambiguous about the end of the Israeli engagement but dates the US withdrawal as February 1984.

[3] The estimate of Lebanese battle deaths is comparatively conservative because it only concerns militia and civilian deaths relating to the Israeli invasion.

[4] The estimate of Palestinian battle deaths is comparatively conservative because it only concerns fighters or civilians killed in relation to the Israeli invasion.

References

Barzilai, 148; Brogan, 311-4; Brownstone and Franke, 506; Clodfelter, 1074-7; COW205, 833; Israel - A Country Study; Kohn, 270-1; Syria - A Country Study.

Gad Barzilai. Wars, Internal Conflicts, and Political Order: A Jewish Democracy in the Middle East. SUNY Press. 1996.

Category

Inter-State War

Region

West Asia

Belligerents

Israel, Syria, Lebanese, Palestinians, USA, France

Dispute

Interests

Initiation Date

June 6, 1982^[1]

Termination Date

June 10, 1985^[2]

Duration

3 years, 5 days
(1101 days)

Outcome

Unresolved Conflict
(Israeli withdrawal)

Fatalities

Total: 10,625
Israel: 657
Lebanese: 5,000^[3]
Syria: 1,200
Palestinians: 3,400^[4]
USA: 273
France: 95

Magnitude

4.0