46 entries on 44 dates · the books disagree on 46
July 1975
Wednesday, 2 July 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Al-Qaa, a Christian village of the northern Bekaa, comes under attack.
Several villagers were killed and houses and fields burned when gunmen besieged al-Qaa, a Christian village by the Syrian border. De Clerck and Malsagne date the Christian exodus from the northern Bekaa from this attack. Amal fighters from neighbouring villages later shielded al-Qaa and other Christian villages.
Sources differ: Attackers: fedayeen (Tegho Bou Nassif), local Shiites (de Clerck and Malsagne), or Fatah, Saiqa, SSNP, Communists and a Shiite clan (Hanf). Dead: 5 or 7. Hanf places the attack before the Karami cabinet was formed (late June).
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August 1975
Monday, 18 August 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The National Movement publishes its reform programme.
The Lebanese National Movement published a transitional programme of democratic reform. Its demands included a constituent assembly, administrative decentralisation and an optional civil code of personal status, together with proportional representation in a single national constituency and an end to sectarian quotas.
Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne's chronology gives 12 August. Tufaro's 18 August comes from the date printed on the LNM document itself and is preferred here.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 12 August 1975
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September 1975
Sunday, 14 September 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Massacre at Beit Millat in Akkar.
Most of Akkar's Christians left for the predominantly Christian regions after gunmen overran and looted Beit Millat, a Maronite village of Akkar, and shot many of its people.
Sources differ: The attackers were Saiqa and Syrian militias (Tegho Bou Nassif) or Sunnis of Akkar (Hanf). About ten dead, or 'a large part' of the village.
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January 1976
Wednesday, 14 January 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Christian militias take the Dbayeh camp.
Militiamen of the National Liberal Party's Tigers and the Phalange took Dbayeh, a Palestinian camp north of Beirut whose refugees were mostly Christian, and expelled its people. Traboulsi and de Clerck and Malsagne treat it as the Christian militias' first drive to purge their territory of Palestinian and Muslim pockets.
Sources differ: Traboulsi gives 13 January.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 13 January 1976
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Sunday, 18 January 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Karantina massacre
Christian forces conquered Karantina, a slum district populated primarily by poor Kurds and Armenians but controlled by a PLO detachment. More than 1000 civilians were massacred.
What the books addDates differ between historians: 16 January (Ménargues), 18 January (de Clerck and Malsagne; consistent with Fisk), 19 January (Hanf), 20 or 22 January (Traboulsi). Maslakh, next door, fell at the same time. Most of the district's people were Shi'is, living alongside Palestinians, Kurds and Armenian Lebanese. Haugbolle estimates 150-500 dead, de Clerck and Malsagne 600-1,000; some 30,000 people were driven out to West Beirut and the southern suburbs.
Art and memory- film Les Enfants de la guerre, Jocelyne Saab's 1976 documentary, was shot in the aftermath of the Karantina massacre.
- place The B018 nightclub, put up at Karantina in 1998, was given a coffin-like look that Haugbolle reads as an allusion to the massacre there.
- book Jonathan Randal's reporting made the Karantina and Damour massacres known abroad.
Other dates in the books: Friday, 16 January 1976, Monday, 19 January 1976, Tuesday, 20 January 1976, Thursday, 22 January 1976
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February 1976
Saturday, 14 February 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Frangieh announces the 'Constitutional Document'.
Laws would need both the president's and the premier's signatures, parliament would elect the premier, Christians and Muslims would share its seats equally, and the three top posts stayed with the same communities: so ran the Constitutional Document agreed in Damascus, which Frangieh issued as a new National Pact. The Kataeb approved it; Kamal Jumblatt and the National Movement opposed it for confirming the sectarian system.
Sources differ: Traboulsi's chronology dates the declaration to 7 February, the day of the Damascus trip; Hanf, de Clerck and Malsagne and Yara El Khoury give 14 February. De Clerck and Malsagne (p. 296) also write that the Christian camp accepted the Document 'from 21 January', before its publication.
Other date in the books: Saturday, 7 February 1976
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March 1976
Thursday, 18 March 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Kamal Jumblatt's forces launch the 'Mountain War'.
Kamal Jumblatt, head of the National Movement, attacked on two fronts, Beirut and the Mountain, to crush the Christian camp militarily. That day's Druze attacks brought several massacres of Christians, some of them Jumblatt supporters.
Sources differ: Hanf places the main Joint Forces offensive in the Upper Metn in the last week of March.
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April 1976
Friday, 2 April 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A ten-day truce had bee decided, in order to elect a new President of the Republic after the expected departure of Sleiman Frangieh.
What the books addParliament used the truce to amend Article 73 of the constitution so that Frangieh's successor could be elected early: on 9 April according to Hanf, 10 April according to Yara El Khoury. The truce had coincided with the arrival on 31 March of the US envoy Dean Brown.
Other dates in the books: Wednesday, 31 March 1976, Friday, 9 April 1976, Saturday, 10 April 1976
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June 1976
Friday, 18 June 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
President Gerald Ford ordered the US embassy in Beirut to evacuate urgently all US nationals in Lebanon who would like to return home.
What the books addBarely a tenth of American and British residents accepted the evacuation, Fisk writes. The British went by road, the PLO escorting them through West Beirut and a Libyan officer on to the Syrian lines; a day later a US landing craft took evacuees off from a PLO-guarded bathing club on the Corniche.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 16 June 1976
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March 1978
Tuesday, 14 March 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Israel invaded the South, after an operation executed by the Fedayin on March 11 at Tel Aviv.
25,000 men backed by the aviation, armored vehicles and artillery invaded, within 2 hours, a tenth of Lebanon and forced Palestinians to withdraw to the North of the Litani. A first estimate reported 700 deaths and 160,000 displaced persons. Refugees rushed to Beirut causing a serious social problem. Air raids bombarded Damour, Ouzaï, and Tyr.
What the books addHistorians date the start of Operation Litani to 14 March (de Clerck and Malsagne, Traboulsi, Quéméner; de Clerck's chronology gives 15 March) and its end to 21 March. Up to 25,000 Israeli soldiers and 120 tanks took part (de Clerck and Malsagne). Estimates of the dead range from about 300 Palestinian fighters (de Clerck and Malsagne) to about 2,000 people, mostly civilians (Fisk; de Clerck and Malsagne; Picard). Estimates of the displaced range from 150,000 (Hanf's refugee table) and more than 200,000 (de Clerck and Malsagne, Picard) to 285,000 (Lebanese government figure cited by Fisk). On 15 March Israeli aircraft bombed the Palestinian camps of Beirut, Tyre and Damour.
Art and memory- film Maroun Baghdadi's 1979 film We Are All For The Fatherland denounced what the Israeli invasion had done to South Lebanon.
- testimony Robert Fisk's eyewitness account of the invasion describes refugees on the coast road, the killing of women and children in two cars at Adloun by an Israeli landing party, the bombing of Aadchit and the shelling of Tyre.
- place The 'Amil association was founded after Israel's 1978 invasion by Kamel Mohanna, a paediatrician from South Lebanon, to bring emergency relief to war victims.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 15 March 1978
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February 1979
Wednesday, 14 February 1979
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Revolution in Iran: Lebanon's Shi'is find a patron abroad.
Iran became an Islamic Republic after the Shah's overthrow; its new defence minister, Mustapha Chamran, had directed a technical school in south Lebanon founded by Sadr. With Musa al-Sadr's disappearance in Libya, the revolution quickly mobilised the Shi'is of Beirut and the south and gave Amal fresh strength.
Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne give 14 February 1979 for the birth of the Islamic Republic; Hanf and Traboulsi date the overthrow of the Shah to January 1979. These may be different stages of the revolution.
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June 1979
Monday, 18 June 1979
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The army enters Ain al-Rummaneh and clashes with Bashir Gemayel's militiamen.
Unable to stop the fighting between their own militias, Pierre Gemayel and Camille Chamoun turned to President Sarkis, who sent in the army. In Ain al-Rummaneh the troops clashed bloodily with Bashir Gemayel's Kataeb fighters, the first serious confrontation between the army and a Lebanese militia, and relations between the army and the Lebanese Forces worsened thereafter.
Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne put the Ain al-Rummaneh turning point on 18 June (p. 275) but have the army called in on 14 June in another passage (p. 321). Original entry 272, of 16 June, expected the army to move in early the following week, which fits Monday 18 June.
Other date in the books: Saturday, 12 May 1979
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August 1979
Tuesday, 14 August 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Tension reached its peak everywhere in Lebanon.
Heavy fights opposed the Lebanese Forces to the Lebanese army at the Beirut River's Corniche and in Oyoune el Simane.
Other date in the books: Monday, 18 June 1979
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December 1980
Sunday, 14 December 1980
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Bashir Gemayel warns his brother Amine's officer to stop building a separate militia.
Bashir Gemayel ran into Colonel Ibrahim Tannous, close to his brother Amine, at the Jeitawi hospital and warned him to stop building up Amine's militia. A month earlier Amine had defied the common Lebanese Forces badge by parading some 3,000 men in Phalange insignia at Jdeideh. Ménargues says Amine backed down from then on.
Sources differ: Hanf says Amine's Metn militia kept a measure of autonomy until 1988.
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April 1981
Thursday, 2 April 1981
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The battle of Zahleh begins.
From December 1980 the Syrian army held positions on the edge of Zahleh. Lebanese Forces fighters in the town repulsed its attack, and a siege of roughly 90 days followed, which Bashir Gemayel portrayed as a fight for 'the last Christian town' of the East.
Sources differ: Ménargues ends the siege on 30 June 1981 and Fisk by 1 July; de Clerck & Malsagne (p. 80) place the end of hostilities in May–June.
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July 1981
Tuesday, 14 July 1981
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
A Syrian MiG is shot down over south Lebanon.
A Syrian MiG was lost near Kfarfalous when Syria's air force tried to intercept Israeli fighter-bombers over the south.
Sources differ: Original entry 489 records a Syrian MiG downed on 29 July; Ménargues's Kfarfalous loss is on 14 July, so they may be separate.
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November 1981
Monday, 2 November 1981
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Arab Strike Force launched a security operation in the West of the capital where Palestinian, Libyan and Iranian influence multiplied lately.
Other date in the books: Friday, 11 September 1981
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June 1982
Monday, 14 June 1982
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Israeli forces cut the Beirut-Damascus road: the siege of West Beirut begins.
The siege of West Beirut, lasting until 21 August, began at dawn as the Israeli army, in a first, crossed the Beirut-Damascus road, trapping the Palestinian forces in the west with a Syrian brigade. By evening white sheets hung in Hamra and Amal fighters were seen dumping guns.
Sources differ: Hanf and Picard describe a siege of 'three months' or from mid-June without a day.
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August 1982
Monday, 2 August 1982
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Israel launches a major offensive against West Beirut.
By Israel's own figure, the opening 48 hours of non-stop bombardment came to 280,000 shells and bombs. Palestinian fighters and their allies then held its columns at the Museum, the port and Bir Hassan.
Sources differ: Original event 585 is dated 1 August; Fisk describes the peak of the bombardment on 4 August.
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September 1982
Tuesday, 14 September 1982
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Bechir Gemayel was killed by a bomb set in the headquarters of the Phalange Party in Achrafieh. The explosion killed 20 persons and wounded 60 others. The Lebanese President was gone and the hope that had pervaded the hearts of the Lebanese had vanished in seconds.
What the books addBashir Gemayel was killed at about 4 p.m. during his weekly visit to the Kataeb office in Ashrafieh, nine days before taking office. The bomb, about 35 kilos of explosive, had been placed two days earlier in the flat above by Habib Tanios Chartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, arrested on 16 September (Ménargues). Prime Minister Wazzan announced the death at midnight. Hanf counts 26 dead.
Art and memory- memorial Each 14 September Achrafieh marked Bashir Gemayel's death with a gathering at his monument in Place Sassine, under wall slogans such as 'Bashir lives in us'.
- testimony Robert Fisk notes a story among East Beirut Maronites that Bashir had left the ruins alive, climbed into an ambulance and would return.
Other date in the books: Thursday, 16 September 1982
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Saturday, 18 September 1982
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Hundreds of women, elderly persons, men and children were massacred in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Chatila. This ignominious act shook the world. Some militias were accused of committing the crime. Nevertheless, as usual in Lebanon, the identity of the murderers remained unknown while the victims were all innocent persons. .
What the books addThe massacre lasted from the evening of Thursday 16 September to the morning of Saturday 18 September (Traboulsi gives 15-17, Hanf 17-18). The killers were militiamen of the Lebanese Forces' security service under Elie Hobeika, together with men of Saad Haddad's South Lebanon militia. The Israeli army, which controlled the area after entering West Beirut on 15 September, let them into the camps, lit the camps with flares at night and watched from command posts nearby. Israel's Kahan Commission, published on 7 February 1983, held the Phalangists directly responsible and found Defence Minister Ariel Sharon personally responsible, recommending his removal; it also attributed indirect responsibility to other Israeli political and military leaders. Estimates of the dead range from about 460-800 to 3,500; Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout's survey found victims of twelve nationalities, about half Palestinian and more than a quarter Lebanese.
Art and memory- film Ari Folman's autobiographical animated documentary Waltz with Bashir (2008) showed how central Israeli soldiers were to the massacre.
- film Massaker (2005), by Lokman Slim and Monika Borgmann, records former Lebanese Forces militiamen describing their part in the massacre.
- testimony Jean Genet entered Chatila on 19 September 1982; de Clerck and Malsagne count his 'Four Hours in Shatila' (1983) among the war's most harrowing accounts.
- artwork Drawing on Genet's text, Iraqi painter Dia al-Azzawi made nine prints in 1983; his polyptych Sabra and Shatila Massacre (1982-83) is now at Tate Modern.
- novel Sorj Chalandon, Libération's man in Lebanon, was among the first into the camps; his 2013 novel Le Quatrième Mur depicts the massacre.
- book Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout's Sabra and Shatila, September 1982 (2004) surveys the victims and records witnesses' descriptions of the killers.
- novel In activism and in fiction, notably Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun), Elias Khoury sought to make Palestinians' war experience part of Lebanese memory.
- novel In Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game (2006), George returns from the Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which he took part, and describes the killings.
Other dates in the books: Wednesday, 15 September 1982, Thursday, 16 September 1982, Friday, 17 September 1982
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February 1983
Monday, 14 February 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Army deployed 3800 soldiers and officers in the East between Nahr El Mott, Dora and Hazmieh, by virtue of a decree granting it extended powers.
What the books addEarly in 1983 the Eighth Brigade went into all of Beirut, the east included, under a plan to collect light arms in the city and clear heavy weapons and gunmen from Greater Beirut. The Lebanese Forces resisted, then on 1 March 1983 agreed to return East Beirut and the port's fifth basin to the state.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 1 March 1983
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May 1983
Saturday, 14 May 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Council of Ministers approved unanimously the draft agreement with Israel which only needed to be signed.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne say the deputies were told of the text at a closed session on 15 May; Prime Minister Wazzan approved it and sent it to the president, and that month 70 of the 91 deputies still in office backed the government.
Other date in the books: Sunday, 15 May 1983
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June 1983
Tuesday, 14 June 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
While the bombardments took a dangerous turn in the mountain as they reached residential areas, the Chamber of Deputies approved the ratification of the Mai 17 agreement with 62 votes against 2 and 4 abstentions.
What the books addCounts differ: Hanf has 64 for, 2 against and 4 abstentions among 70 deputies present (40 of 50 Christian and 24 of 41 Muslim members in favour); Traboulsi has 65 for, 2 against and 4 abstentions; Fisk puts the vote on 15 June. Traboulsi says the government formally renounced the agreement on 5 March 1984, Amine Gemayel never having signed it.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 15 June 1983
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January 1984
Monday, 2 January 1984
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The year started like the previous one ended : everyone was talking about a new security plan for the mountain and the Southern suburbs of Beirut. Nevertheless, the fights continued intermittently in these regions between the Army and the Lebanese Forces on one side and the Progressive Socialist Party and Amal on the other.
What the books addOn 29 January the Druze resumed attacking the army at Souk al-Gharb, after Shi'i militia sniping at the army and French troops from mid-January, Hanf's next escalation.
Other date in the books: Sunday, 29 January 1984
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February 1984
Thursday, 2 February 1984
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The schools closed their doors in the Eastern sector of the capital due to the blind shelling of Beirut and its suburbs.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 1 February 1984
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Tuesday, 14 February 1984
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Amal and PSP met in Khaldeh, while only Souk El Gharb was still controlled by the Army in the mountain.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne give 14 February 1984 for the PSP's capture of the Chahhar district, part of a week-long uprising in Beirut and the mountain.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 15 February 1984
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January 1985
Monday, 14 January 1985
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Israeli government decided to withdraw its army from South Lebanon progressively.
What the books addThe withdrawal was unilateral and staged. Antoine Lahad's militia, renamed the South Lebanon Army and backed by Israel, was to police the 'security zone' Israel kept. Historians date the departure from Sidon to 17 February (Traboulsi), and the fall-back to the security zone to May-June 1985 (de Clerck and Malsagne).
Other date in the books: Sunday, 17 February 1985
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March 1985
Thursday, 14 March 1985
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
British metallurgist Geoffrey Nash is kidnapped in West Beirut.
Three gunmen abducted Geoffrey Nash near his home in Makhoul Street. Nash, a British metallurgist, worked for the Lebanese industrial institute.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 8 January 1985
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January 1986
Tuesday, 14 January 1986
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The eleventh Gemayel-Assad summit was a total failure.
What the books addFor Gemayel, says Traboulsi, the accord robbed the presidency of its arbitrating role; they last met on 13-14 January 1986.
Other date in the books: Monday, 13 January 1986
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September 1986
Thursday, 18 September 1986
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
While a terrorist vague submerged France, the French military attaché, Christian Goutierre was assassinated in Mar Takla.
What the books addHe was shot in the head 25 m from the ambassador's office, a day after the rue de Rennes attack in Paris (7 dead, 55 wounded).
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 17 September 1986
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May 1987
Monday, 18 May 1987
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The Marxist thinker Mahdi Amel (Hassan Hamdan) is assassinated.
Hassan Hamdan, known as Mahdi Amel, a philosopher and leading theorist of the Lebanese Communist Party, was assassinated. Hanf says his Shi'i background made him especially hated, branded an 'atheist traitor'.
Sources differ: Responsibility: Hanf names Amal supporters; de Clerck and Malsagne place the killing in the context of the Hezbollah-Communist break without naming the killers.
Art and memory- book Hanf's annotated list of Arabic writing on the war includes Mahdi Amel's 1979 work on the causes of the civil war, Theory in Political Practice, and describes its author as a Shi'i philosophy professor and Communist Party member.
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January 1988
Monday, 18 January 1988
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Amal lifts its blockade of the Palestinian camps.
Amal ended the blockade of the Palestinian camps it had kept up since 1985. Hanf gives two reasons: the West Bank intifada, which made Syria and Amal look like Israel's accomplices if they kept squeezing the camps, and Amal's coming fight with Hezbollah.
Sources differ: Existing entry 1053 (20 January) describes Syrian and Sixth Brigade deployment around Chatila and Bourj al-Barajneh. Picard's chronology dates an agreement ending the war of the camps to 11 September 1987; Hanf (p. 304) also says the war ended only in late 1988.
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September 1988
Sunday, 18 September 1988
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Mikhael Daher, deputy from the North, 'was designated' candidate at the presidential elections in accordance with a Syrian-American agreement. This designation did not please everyone.
What the books addHanf (pp. 569-570): the joint US-Syrian proposal came out of three days of talks in Damascus from 15 September, after which Murphy warned the Maronite Patriarch that the alternative to Daher was chaos.
Other date in the books: Thursday, 15 September 1988
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February 1989
Tuesday, 14 February 1989
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
New confrontations between the army and the L.F. were taking place in Monteverde and next to the Justice Palace in Beirut, which created a general mobilization on both sides.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne date the first army-LF clash to 14 February: after 18 hours of fighting the army had the upper hand. Hanf dates the start to 10 February.
Other date in the books: Friday, 10 February 1989
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May 1989
Tuesday, 2 May 1989
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Aoun recasts his 'war of liberation' as a diplomatic campaign; Syrian shelling starts again.
Within a week Syrian shelling of the enclave was back at full intensity; Hanf says Syria and its allies kept the Arab League ceasefire only a few days. Aoun, having accepted it, recast his war as a diplomatic struggle.
Sources differ: Hanf gives 2 May both for Aoun's statement and for the renewed shelling; the shelling date may be a misprint.
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March 1990
Wednesday, 14 March 1990
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Six weeks of inter-Christian fightings cost Lebanon over a third of its annual GNP and continue to paralyze the country's industrial heart.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 31 January 1990
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April 1996
Thursday, 18 April 1996
After the war · From the books
Israeli shells kill 106 refugees in the UN compound at Qana.
A UN inquiry judged an error unlikely, largely on the strength of a soldier's video of an Israeli drone above the Fijian battalion's base, where some 560 villagers had taken shelter. The shelling lasted seventeen minutes, until 2.25 p.m.; more than half of the dead were children.
Sources differ: 106 dead (Fisk, de Clerck, Haugbolle), 107 (Picard), 102 (Quéméner calendar). Number of refugees: 560 (Fisk). Quéméner alone says UN soldiers were killed.
Art and memory- memorial Qana Day, 18 April, became a state day of national remembrance in 1997, with gatherings, exhibitions and a permanent museum display at Qana; the victims share a marble-covered grave beside the former UN base.
- book Robert Fisk's chapter 'The Massacre' in Pity the Nation is built on survivors' testimony and the UN soldier's video of the drone.
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February 2005
Monday, 14 February 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is assassinated in Beirut.
Shortly after midday a huge bomb struck Rafic Hariri's convoy outside the Saint-Georges hotel on the Beirut seafront, killing him and others travelling with him. Lebanese politics then divided into two blocs, which took their names from the rallies of 8 and 14 March.
Sources differ: Death toll differs: 22 dead (de Clerck & Malsagne, p. 461 and p. 577); Hariri 'and eight companions' (Abirached, p. 243, although the same chronology's 7 April entry speaks of Hariri 'and twenty-two other persons'); 18 dead (Quéméner). The counts may cover different groups (convoy only, or all victims, including those who died later).
Art and memory- book Sune Haugbolle's War and Memory in Lebanon begins with the Hariri bombing of 14 February 2005, which he takes as the end of postwar Lebanon and which brought the war back to many Lebanese minds.
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June 2005
Thursday, 2 June 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Journalist and historian Samir Kassir is killed by a car bomb.
Samir Kassir, academic, columnist and a leading voice against Syrian control, died when a bomb went off in his car. Haugbolle treats the killing as the moment post-Syrian Lebanon's disarray grew plain.
Sources differ: 2 June in four sources (de Clerck & Malsagne, Abirached, Quéméner, Khayat) against 1 June in Haugbolle. 2 June has the most support.
Art and memory- book De Clerck and Malsagne call Samir Kassir's 1994 study, which ends in 1982, a reference work; Kassir himself noted that no academic research yet covered the conflict in its full complexity.
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February 2006
Thursday, 2 February 2006
Since 2005 · From the books
The Shiite ministers return to the cabinet.
Their boycott, begun after Tueni's assassination, ended after some seven weeks.
Sources differ: Abirached's dates imply a boycott of about seven weeks; Picard's chapter speaks of several months.
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July 2006
Friday, 14 July 2006
July 2006, as the books tell it · From the books
Hezbollah's 'security quarter' in Haret Hreik is flattened; Al-Manar keeps broadcasting.
Mona Harb stresses that Haret Hreik was chiefly a dense quarter of homes and shops; days of bombing ruined it. From the early evening jets levelled the towers holding Hezbollah's headquarters and the Al-Manar building, though the channel stayed on air from a secret site; tens of thousands had fled to northern Beirut after Israeli media announced the raid.
Sources differ: Date: early evening of 14 July (34 Days) against 15 July (Abirached). Buildings destroyed: more than 200 (Harb), 182 plus 192 damaged (Verdeil), at least 127 (Bustos).
Reports at the time: The archive reports Nasrallah's headquarters and residence building destroyed on Friday evening 14 July (19:50, 20:15) and the official news agency confirming the nine-storey building 'entirely destroyed' at 15:10 on 15 July, which may explain Abirached's date.
The reports of that day, as they came in
Art and memory- memorial Israeli bombing in summer 2006 hit UMAM's Hangar and documentation centre in Haret Hreik, where since 2001 Lokman Slim and Monika Borgmann had been archiving, among other things, the memory of the Lebanese war; part of the archive was destroyed.
Other date in the books: Saturday, 15 July 2006
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August 2006
Monday, 14 August 2006
July 2006, as the books tell it · From the books
The displaced go home.
Almost a million displaced people headed home, mostly southwards, once the ceasefire held; the schools that had housed them were empty within 48 hours, and many returned to ruins. Unlike in 1982, de Clerck and Malsagne note, the exodus left no lasting mark on Beirut's neighbourhoods.
Sources differ: Speed: 'almost all home within 48 hours' (Raymond) against the HRC figures in 111101's July 2006 archive (Figures page), which still count 702,413 displaced on 15-16 August and 262,174 on 19 August.
Reports at the time: The archive also records Israeli leaflets on 14-15 August telling southerners not to return before the army's deployment.
The reports of that day, as they came in
July 2006, as the books tell it · From the books
The toll of the war: the books disagree.
The books' counts of the war's dead in Lebanon range from about 900 to nearly 1,200, with over 4,000 wounded and close to a million displaced; on the Israeli side, 116 to 170 dead, most of them soldiers. The figures differ by source, by what they count (all dead, civilians, combatants) and by cutoff date; each version is kept here with who gave it.
Sources differ: Lebanese dead: about 900 (de Clerck and Malsagne, Ministry of Health), 1,100 all categories (34 Days), 1,183 'civilians' (Mermier and Picard; Bustos, who adds 91-134 combatants), nearly 1,200 (Abirached; Quemener, apparently repeating Abirached word for word). Share of civilians: 'almost half' (34 Days, Israeli framing) against the civilian majority in all Lebanese-sourced figures. Israeli dead: 116 soldiers at 14 August (Makki), 150 (Abirached), 161 (34 Days), 162 (Mermier and Picard), 170 (Bustos). Displaced in Israel: 250,000 (Mermier and Picard) against 400,000 (Abirached).
Reports at the time: The archive records the Israeli army's own estimate of 530 Hezbollah fighters killed, 180 of them verified (14 August, 02:20), far above Hezbollah's admissions quoted in 34 Days.
The reports of that day, as they came in
Art and memory- book The two main books on the war used here, Harel and Issacharoff's 34 Days (2008) and Mermier and Picard's Liban, une guerre de 33 jours (2007), are not in 111101 References.
Since 2005 · From the books
The cessation of hostilities takes effect; the displaced return south.
The ceasefire came into force on 14 August. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people immediately headed back to the South, and Hassan Nasrallah claimed a 'divine' or 'strategic' victory and promised compensation for destroyed homes. Tolls for the 33 days differ widely between the books. The war's day-by-day record is in 111101's July 2006 archive (/facts/history/july2006/).
Sources differ: Lebanese dead: nearly 1,200 (Abirached; Quéméner, who repeats the same figures and probably depends on the same source), about 900 (de Clerck & Malsagne 2025), 1,400 (de Clerck & Malsagne in Confluences 2020). Israeli displaced: 400,000 (Abirached, Quéméner) against 250,000 (Mermier & Picard introduction). Cutoffs and definitions are not given.
\_this day in full (July 2006, as the books tell it) \_this day in full (Since 2005) \_on this day
