Protesters attack the Danish consulate in Achrafieh.
Cars, shops and building entrances in Achrafieh, a Christian district, were wrecked when hundreds of protesters, furious at the Danish cartoons of the Prophet, tried to storm Denmark's consulate there. For Picard, the protests revived Christian fears of an 'Islamist' threat.
Michel Aoun and Hassan Nasrallah sign their memorandum of understanding.
At the church of Mar Mikhael, on the old Chiyah–Ain al-Rummaneh demarcation line, Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah signed a memorandum of understanding covering the electoral law, Hezbollah's weapons and relations with Syria. The alliance lasted until the 2020 crisis.
The accord left Hezbollah's arms and the Israeli border aside, but the leaders agreed that Lebanon would deal with Syria as an equal, accept no armed Palestinian presence and regard the Shebaa Farms as Lebanese.
Syrian and Lebanese intellectuals sign the Beirut-Damascus Declaration.
In May 2006 several hundred Lebanese and Syrians signed Michel Kilo's declaration calling for mutual respect of sovereignty, border demarcation, diplomatic relations and democracy in both states; Syria then harassed and arrested signatories, Kilo above all.
Rockets on northern Israel bring the heaviest Israeli strikes since 2000.
Rockets fired at an air base near Safad, in northern Israel, brought Israel's most violent response since its 2000 withdrawal: aircraft struck the Aita al-Shaab area and hillsides by Khiam and Chakra in the border zone.
Hamra, where most of the pre-war cinemas still stood disused, gained an art-house cinema, Metropolis, inside the Theatre de la Ville on 10 July, two days before the war began.
Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers; Israel launches a war on Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters attacked an Israeli patrol across the border on the morning of 12 July and took two soldiers, whom the party offered to trade for Arab prisoners. Dozens of Israeli air raids on the South followed; strikes on the airport, bridges and roads and an air and sea blockade came next. The war's day-by-day record is in 111101's July 2006 archive (/facts/history/july2006/).
Adopted unanimously, it demanded a complete end to hostilities and an Israeli pull-out from the South, where the Lebanese army and a UNIFIL raised to 15,000 troops were to deploy; Hezbollah's weapons were left for the Lebanese state to deal with. In a televised address, Nasrallah said Hezbollah would not block Lebanon's decision. The war's day-by-day record is in 111101's July 2006 archive (/facts/history/july2006/).
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/).
Kofi Annan in Beirut calls for lifting the Israeli blockade.
The UN Secretary-General also asked that Beirut and Damascus open diplomatic relations and make their shared border secure. Hezbollah's forces left their positions opposite the Shebaa Farms.
Stockholm conference on Lebanon's reconstruction; Annan in Damascus.
The Stockholm reconstruction conference opened with a goal of 500 million dollars. Kofi Annan was in Damascus, asking Assad for diplomatic relations with Lebanon and a demarcated border; Assad answered that a UNIFIL presence on the border would be 'hostile' and warned he might reply with a land blockade.
Youth gangs clash along old sectarian lines in Beirut.
Rival youth gangs fought in Beirut over the weeks after the ceasefire, pitting Shiites against Sunnis in the western districts and, repeatedly, Christians of Ain al-Rummaneh against Shiites from neighbouring Chiyah and the southern suburb. With the old sectarian lines resurfacing, security forces were posted at strategic points across the city.
Donors pledge 940 million dollars; Assad promises to help enforce the arms embargo.
Donor pledges at the close of the Stockholm conference totalled 940 million dollars. Assad, for his part, undertook to help the UN apply the embargo on weapons for Hezbollah.
Annan: Israel and Hezbollah agree to UN mediation on the two captured soldiers.
The UN was to mediate between Israel and Hezbollah over the two soldiers captured on 12 July: both had agreed, the Secretary-General announced from Saudi Arabia.
Bomb attack at Rmeileh on a police officer investigating Hariri's murder.
An Internal Security Forces officer who was investigating Rafic Hariri's murder was attacked at Rmeileh. Abirached's chronology closes with this event.
The Israeli blockade, in force from 12 July to 7 September, stopped Lebanese printed matter from being exported. In the southern suburb, bombing partly or wholly destroyed some forty publishing houses and about ten printing works.
Nasrallah's 'victory' speech made no distinction among the martyrs it honoured: resistance fighters, soldiers, members of the security forces and of civil defence.
Hezbollah and Amal ministers resign from the government.
Amal and Hezbollah quit Siniora's cabinet, which they accused of half-hearted support for Hezbollah in the summer war; they also sought to stop the Hariri tribunal. The cabinet went on without them.
Pierre Gemayel, MP and Minister of Industry, was assassinated in Beirut. Picard calls Amine's son and Bashir's nephew the heir to the Kataeb leadership.
