Since it's been going on for 20+ years the MSM hadn't reported too much on it.
http://www-cgi.cnn.com/WORLD/9604/17/lebanon.israel/10am/
Except that it was in 1996. History in Middle-East repeats itself...
Just ask your fiend why Israeli civilian casualties are relatively light compared to Lebanese.
Answer: most Israeli CIVILIANS in the north have BOMB SHELTERS because they regularly and historically live under constant threat of incoming rockets and artillery from terrorist attacks against CIVILIANS. Lebanese do not.
The "Palestinian" is "wrong".
Rockets have been fired into Israel constantly.
Concerning this particular incident: there was simultaneous rocket fire on Israel occurring as a diversionary tactic while Hezbolla invaded, kidnapped the two soldiers, and killed others.
Take a step back with your friend. What is Hezbollah's legitimacy to power? They are not the duly elected Lebanese government are they? You can make the point that Israel is not attacking Lebanon, it's attacking a gang of thugs. In all seriousness, it would be nice if the palestinian and lebanese governments would help with Hizbollah. They are afterall and supposedly elected governments committed to the rule of law. Once the 'state with-in a state' actors are eliminated, sympathetic governments will have choices to make. That is, they can fight Israel (under the watchful eye of the world)or they can accept Israel. The dirty little secret is that Hizbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. are all 'fig-leaf' terrorist groups for Muslim Governments. It's time to expose this fact and get everyones cards on the table.
During what time frame? They've been doing it for many years.
Hezbollah has been doing this for years, and Israeli soldiers stationed along the northern border get killed or injured all the time.
I have Egyptian and Lebanese friends who are always filling me in on events in the M.E. It appears that any given event that the Israelis use as reason to retaliate, is in fact a retaliation for an earlier Israeli "atrocity" etc. etc. Not surprising since these battles have been going on for decades, there is always an earlier event that one side or the other can point to as "justification" for the latest round of violence.
Solomon himself could not deal with this problem. I can only say that Israel is not doing itself any favors by bombing major Lebanese roads, airports and other facilities. Lebanon is one of the more moderate ME countries, and now almost a fifth of its people are war refugees. The elusive terrorist groups are impossible to completely eradicate, but a country can be destroyed, and Lebanon cannot survive much more of Israel's war on Hezbollah.
Hezbollah then withdrew into Lebanon with their two hostages. They were pursued by IDF forces and 5 more IDF members died in the battle.
So if you limit the scope of this particular conflict, IDF forces entered Lebanon before Hezbollah started firing rocket on this particular occasion. However they did so in pursuit of a group that had entered Israel, killed IDF members and was fleeing into Lebanon with hostages.
This however is not the first conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, and Hezbollah has a long history of firing missiles into Israel at civilian targets as well as performing suicide bombings in Israel.
Israel has over the years captured terrorists involved in those attacks, and it is those terrorists which Hezbollah is demanding Israel trade in order to have their soldiers that they kidnapped freed in return.
If you Palestinian friend cannot understand the difference between the IDF following terrorists back into Lebanon after they killed and kidnapped Israeli troops, and shooting inaccurate antipersonnel rockets into cities, then you need to make different friends. Friends don't let friends advocate the murder of innocents.
Why do you bother?
Ever tried arguing with a rock?
"I am having an argument with a Palestinian friend of mine on the Israel/Hizzbullah situation and I am stuck and unable to prove that Hizzbullah fired rockets into Israel prior to Israel's incursion of Southern Lebanon. Can someone point me in the right direction on this one?"
You have fallen into their trap.
Your first mistake is to consider him a friend. He is pretending to be your friend, so long as it benefits him.
The facts don't matter to them. They will argue without end, as they have since 1948.
That is my version. Others may disagree.
Hezbollah kills 8 soldiers, kidnaps two in offensive on northern border
By Amos Harel
Eight Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and two others were kidnapped in a series of Hezbollah assaults on the northern border yesterday. Another five soldiers and five civilians were wounded in the attacks.
Israel responded with massive aerial attacks on targets throughout Lebanon.
The fighting began at about 9:00 A.M., when a group of reserve soldiers in two armored jeeps was conducting a routine patrol of the border. As the jeeps passed between Moshav Zarit and Moshav Shtula, Hezbollah attacked.
An initial inquiry revealed that the Hezbollah operatives had crossed the border earlier via a "dead zone" in the border fence not visible from any of the IDF lookout posts. There are dozens of similar "dead zones" along the northern border, though the IDF said that lookout cameras to cover this particular spot were due to be installed next week. The assailants may have used a wheeled ladder to climb over the fence.
The operatives hid themselves in an overgrown wadi about 200 meters on the Israeli side of the fence and waited until the IDF troops arrived, whereupon they attacked, apparently with a combination of explosives and antitank missiles.
Three soldiers were killed during the initial assault, while one soldier was seriously wounded, another lightly wounded and a third suffered a shrapnel scratch. In addition, the assailants kidnapped two soldiers, whose medical condition is unknown. According to the IDF, Hezbollah probably had an escape vehicle waiting on the other side of the fence. The entire incident took no more than 10 minutes, and the Israeli soldiers apparently never fired a shot.
Ambush and diversionary attack
Simultaneously with this ambush, Hezbollah also launched a diversionary attack: a barrage of mortar shells and Katyusha rockets on communities and IDF outposts in the western part of the border area. That assault wounded five civilians, though none seriously: Some were lightly wounded, and the others suffered from shock.
As soon as this barrage began, the Galilee Division conducted a routine check to ensure that all army outposts and vehicles were still in contact with headquarters, and quickly discovered that contact had been lost with the two jeeps patrolling near Zarit. Both jeeps had been damaged in the Hezbollah assault. A rescue force was summoned to the scene, and when it arrived, about half an hour after the attack, it found the two damaged jeeps and the dead and wounded soldiers. The rescue force soon realized that two of the soldiers had been kidnapped and sent out an alert.
Due in part to the lessons learned from the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit less than three weeks earlier, a force of tanks and armored personnel carriers was immediately sent into Lebanon in hot pursuit. It was during this pursuit, at about 11:00 A.M., that the second deadly incident occurred: A Merkava tank drove over a powerful bomb, containing an estimated 200 to 300 kilograms of explosives, about 70 meters north of the border fence. The tank was almost completely destroyed, and all four crew members were killed instantly.
Over the next several hours, IDF soldiers waged a fierce fight against Hezbollah gunmen as the soldiers tried to extricate the damaged tank, in order to recover the bodies and to keep Hezbollah from stealing it. During the course of this battle, at about 3:00 P.M., another soldier was killed and two were lightly wounded. As of press time last night, however, the tank had still not been extracted.
Due to the force of the bomb, only bits and pieces of the soldiers' bodies are likely to be found inside.
The damaged tank did not have armored plating on its belly; most tanks with such protection are stationed on the Gaza border. However, tank officers said that due to the size of the bomb, such plating would still not have saved the soldiers' lives.
The fighting continued throughout the day, with Hezbollah gunmen repeatedly trying to attack army outposts along the border. At the Oranit outpost near Rosh Hanikra, soldiers killed one Hezbollah operative; other Hezbollah gunmen were apparently killed during an assault on the Dvoranit outpost. The IDF suffered no casualties during these battles.
In response to the Hezbollah onslaught, the IDF attacked dozens of targets throughout Lebanon, including Hezbollah outposts and several bridges over the Awali River. According to the IDF, all Hezbollah outposts along the border were destroyed. The bombing, which included targets in central and northern Lebanon, apparently caused multiple Lebanese casualties.
According to GOC Northern Command Udi Adam, the IDF had no intelligence warnings of the Hezbollah attack. After Shalit was kidnapped, he said, the army decided to up the alert level in the north for fear of a similar attack, but a few days ago, the alert was lowered again.
If I had a Palestinian friend, the argument would go:
Laz: You hate Jews. I'm Jewish. Die please.
Pal: No!
Laz: *BLAM*
Don't arue with your palistenian friend.
Give him a gift instead.
Martyr him!
Why don't you just tell you so called friend, "It's about dang time Israel went wide open on ya'll. They must be sick and tired of 30 years of getting bombed. They gave you your state and the first thing ya'll do is start launching rockets into Israel. You then elect a terrorist organization to represent you in goverment. For years the rest of the world has been giving you money, ya'll can't even build roads and schools and take care of yourselves, what ever money isn't stolen, it is used for bombs. Lebanon has allowed Hizbollah to live in their country and be elected to goverment. Even ole Nasarallah didn't expect the reaction. The fact of the matter is WE ARE ALL SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR SUICIDE BOMBERS, ROCKETS AND HATEFUL WAYS. BOO FREAKING HOO.