lebanese war
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1975/1990
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45 news for the 3rd, 6th of January, February, June, September, December

with the books

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January 3, 1975friday
South Lebanon was bombarded
Israeli bombing made the inhabitants of South Lebanon go through dramatic moments. Six persons were killed, five were wounded, six villagers were kidnapped, and 13 houses were destroyed. The army and the Fedayin fought with the enemy. Twice, the Lebanese repelled incursion attempts.

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January 1975 saw heavy Israeli attacks on the South. Israeli forces razed Kfar Chouba, a border village, about a week after 7 January (Hanf), and Palestinian commandos shelled army positions in Tyre during border clashes with the Lebanese army (de Clerck and Malsagne). The figures for 3 January come from contemporary press reports.

January 6, 1975monday
The army launched an attack in Tripoli
The army succeeded, after a tense day of occasional shootings, to invest and control the old town of Tripoli where many outlaws have been hiding for the past 6 months. Two civilians died, 12 were wounded, and 75 persons were arrested.

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February 3, 1975monday
After a debate that lasted 15 days, the conclave chose unanimously a neutralist candidate. Mgr Antonios Khoreiche was the new Patriarch of Antioch and the Middle East.

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Antoine Khuraych headed the Maronite Church from his election on 3 February 1975 (enthronement 9 February) until 1986, styling himself the 'patriarch of dialogue'.

December 6, 1975saturday
The assassination of four young Phalangists on the Fanar road provoked horrible killings in the streets of Beirut.
The capital was rapidly set ablaze. It was the apocalypse. Militias launched street fights resulting in tens of innocent victims. Violence was at its peek and nothing seemed to end this thirst for blood.

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The bodies of four young Kataeb members were found on 6 December 1975, while Pierre Gemayel was in Damascus; Muslims seized at makeshift checkpoints by the port were killed in reprisal. Accounts place the bodies in the Metn (Hanf), near Tal al-Za'tar (Haugbolle) or outside the electricity company offices (Fisk). De Clerck and Malsagne blame Joseph Saadeh, whose son was among the four. Only Fisk puts Bashir Gemayel in Damascus and cites Phalangist officers saying he ordered the reprisal. The Muslim dead number about 200 (Hanf, Traboulsi, de Clerck and Malsagne) or several dozen (Picard); Fisk gives at least 300 Muslims, and probably as many Christians, in the reprisals.

January 3, 1977monday
A violent explosion shook the district of Accoui in Achrafieh causing 26 dead and 70 injured.
Shattered glass fell all over the streets hitting several vehicles. The death toll rose to 50 by the next morning.

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January 6, 1977thursday
A particularly vigorous winter hit Lebanon. It snowed in Beirut, which was quite unusual. Temperature fell to 0 degree.

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January 6, 1978friday
The Begin Plan concerning the settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon made some noise.
The Lebanese reacted with firmness and indignation to the conspiracy initiated by foreign countries. According to Salim El Hoss, 'Every project expecting the settlement of Palestinians outside of their land is rejected.' The President of the Republic also rejected any project stipulating the permanent settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon. 'Our country should determine itself what it is able to offer. It is unfair to solve the Palestinian question by creating a Lebanese problem. We will make every effort to let our right prevail', he said.

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Hanf notes that in December 1977 Menachem Begin, Israel's prime minister, had excluded any return of the Palestinian refugees in neighbouring countries.

June 6, 1978tuesday
The Lebanese Front stiffened its position.
It considered that the Palestinian Resistance did not have its place in Lebanon anymore. The Front proclaimed that all the agreements with the PLO were null and void. The Front hoped that the Lebanese army replaces the primarily Syrian Arab Strike Force. President Sarkis was determined to dispatch the army to the South.

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January 6, 1979saturday
President Elias Sarkis re-affirmed the rejection of the implantation. The chief of State requested the reinforcement for the UNIFL

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February 6, 1979tuesday
One dead and 10 injured were reported on the 'Ring of death' under sniper shots.

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February 3, 1980sunday
Arab Strike Force units stationed in Beirut projected to withdraw towards Aley in the next few days. The decision surprised the government and the chief of State presided a meeting to study how to fill the gap.

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Historians describe the Syrian pull-back from Beirut in 1980 as a redeployment to the Bekaa and to mountain positions overlooking the capital, with a garrison kept in West Beirut (Hanf). The Lebanese army could not replace the departing Arab Deterrent Force everywhere (Picard).

June 3, 1980tuesday
Violent combats were reported in Saida.
Soldiers from the Lebanese Army clashed with armed elements from the Resistance, acting under the name of officer Ahmed Khatib's Army of Arab Lebanon. The confrontation started by an ambush in Remeile against a military convoy. The town of Saida observed a strike in protest against these incidents.

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June 6, 1980friday
Selim el Hoss resigned from office. President Sarkis accepted his resignation on June 16.

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Ménargues dates the resignation to March 1980, after repeated deadlock between Hoss and Sarkis over the army; Hoss stayed on as caretaker until Shafiq Wazzan's appointment in late October.

December 3, 1980wednesday
The government held its first meeting on October 25. Despite the opposition of the Amal movement, the four Shiite ministers attended the meeting.

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December 3, 1980wednesday
A murderous Israeli raid was perpetrated between Damour and Saadyat. A Lebanese memorandum presented to the UN reported 15 deaths and 13 injuries.

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January 3, 1981saturday
After its withdrawal from Ain El Remmaneh on October 31, 1980 the Army repositioned on the main road axes in the region.

\_this day in full the books also date it 31 October 1980, 20 November 1980 \_on this day

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Dates differ. De Clerck and Malsagne's chronology has the Lebanese Forces controlling East Beirut from 31 October 1980. Ménargues puts the LF's 48-hour assault on Ain al-Remmaneh, held by Elias Hannouche's Chamounists, ten days after the 10 November car bombs, around 20 November 1980.

September 3, 1981thursday
A first encounter between Syrian officials and members of the Phalange Party in Baabda under the aegis of the Arab Committee resulted in the reopening of the roads.

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In Ménargues's account the Saudi and Kuwaiti foreign ministers proposed Syria–Lebanese Forces talks after seeing Khaddam in Beirut on 3 September. Next day at Baabda, Bashir Gemayel accepted the opening of crossing points. The Vigilance Committee's evening statement reserved arms imports to legal forces and set up a body to police the coast and ports; Bashir and the Lebanese Front rejected it.

January 3, 1982sunday
Twenty days after the resumption of the Iraqi oil pumping to the Tripoli terminal, the pipeline was dynamited. This incident seemed to be part of the Iran-Iraq war.

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January 6, 1982wednesday
President Elias Sarkis declared: 'The world watches the Lebanese agony with indifference.'

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June 6, 1982sunday
The Israelis invaded the South along three axes.
The Security Council adopted immediately a resolution requesting the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli forces up to the internationally recognized borderlines. However, this did not stop Israel from reaching Saida and Tyr.

\_this day in full the books also date it 5 June 1982 \_on this day

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The invasion, called 'Operation Peace for Galilee', began on Sunday 6 June: Israeli commandos crossed the border at 1.30 a.m. to attack Beaufort castle (Ménargues), and up to 25,000 troops moved along the coast, through Tibnin and across the eastern sector (Fisk). The government declared a limited aim of a 40-kilometre zone, but Defence Minister Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan kept advancing (Hanf). One overview in de Clerck and Malsagne and Picard's chronology give 5 June.

January 3, 1983monday
Tension was at its peak in Tripoli. A shell storm hit the city making 20 deaths and several wounded. The combats opposed the Popular Resistance to the Arab Strike Force.

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January 6, 1983thursday
The Israeli forces pursued their combing operations in the sectors of Laylaki, Kfarchima and Choueifat. The 'Marines' sent a severe warning to the Israeli army.

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Robert Fisk recounts that Defence Secretary Weinberger proposed an award for Charles Johnson, a Marine captain who in January 1983 stopped an Israeli tank unit entering the Marine sector off the old Sidon road by climbing onto the lead tank and pointing his pistol at its commander.

June 3, 1983friday
An earthquake of 5.3 magnitude on the Richter scale provoked panic but caused no victims.

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February 6, 1984monday
In a matter of hours, Amal took control over West Beirut. The capital was heavily bombed, while the Army gave up the control of the Western sector of the Capital to Amal and to the Islamic militias.

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The books describe a joint Amal and PSP (Druze) offensive, not Amal alone; the mainly Shi'i Sixth Brigade went over to Amal. Hanf dates the last Christian soldiers' withdrawal to the east, and so the completed division, to 7 February. De Clerck and Malsagne record the uprising's name, 'the 6 February movement'. About 50,000 Christians moved east, almost half the public radio's 400 staff left their posts, and Télé-Liban split. A later Sunni militia took its name from the date (Hanf).

September 6, 1984thursday
At the United Nations, the United States vetoed a Lebanese draft resolution submitted to the Security Council. This draft resolution requested from Israel, the 'occupying force', to respect civil rights in South Lebanon.

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December 3, 1984monday
Guns were still echoing in the Iqlim.

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January 3, 1985thursday
Eric Wehrli, the Swiss chargé d'affaires, was kidnapped in West Beirut. He was later released on January 7 by Amal. The dollar reached 9.10 Lebanese Pounds.

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January 6, 1985sunday
The 12th round of the Israeli-Lebanese negotiations in Nakoura started.

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Picard dates the end of President Gemayel's talks with Israel to January 1985.

June 6, 1985thursday
Israel officially completed its withdrawal from South Lebanon. Nevertheless, several Israeli soldiers continued to occupy the Security Zone. In reality, the last Israeli armored vehicle left Lebanon on June 10 after an accident in which Israel lost 654 deaths and 3890 injured, and four disappeared soldiers.

\_this day in full the books also date it 17 February 1985, 28 December 1985 \_on this day

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Israeli losses: de Clerck and Malsagne count 670 dead and nearly 3,000 wounded between June 1982 and June 1985 (and 721 dead and 3,890 wounded for the whole war); Traboulsi writes of some 500 dead. Israel kept a 'security zone' policed with Lahad's South Lebanon Army.

September 3, 1985tuesday
Beirut was cut into two. There were severe shortages of bread and gas.

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December 3, 1985tuesday
For the first time since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, the Israeli Army carried out an important military operation outside the Security Zone. A base belonging to Ahmed Jibril's Popular Palestinian Liberation Front was destroyed in the Region of Rachaya El Wadi.

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February 3, 1986monday
Death hit once again. A bomb hidden in a suitcase exploded in Jdeideh killing four persons and wounding 22 others.

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January 6, 1987tuesday
The Cassir decrees caused a fast increase in the price of fuel. Starting this day, 20 liters of gas were sold at 190 LBP, while the jar of butane was sold at 100 LBP.

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February 6, 1987friday
The Lebanese Pound recorded a historic decline compared to the dollar which had almost reached the 100 LBP threshold. This fall worried the population.

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De Clerck and Malsagne call 1987's currency crisis the gravest since independence, the pound losing up to 90 percent of its value; on Banque du Liban figures (Hanf), it fell from about 35 to the dollar in 1986 to some 520.

June 3, 1987wednesday
A Syrian delegation led by Abdel-Halim Khaddam, the Syrian Republic's Vice-President attend the national funerals of Karame in Tripoli.

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January 3, 1988sunday
Murderous Israeli raids on Palestinian and Progressive Socialist Party positions in the region of Saida make kill 21 persons and wound 11.

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February 3, 1988wednesday
Winter is tough. A 20 cm snow layer covers Tripoli where it had not snowed since 1947.

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June 3, 1988friday
Nabih Berri, leader of the Amal movement, announces the dissolution of his militia in all regions except for Southern Lebanon.

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February 6, 1989monday
After 2 months of interruption, the Red Cross International Committee decides to resume its activities in Lebanon.

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September 6, 1989wednesday
2000 angry demonstrators have besieged the American Embassy. Twenty-four hours later, 30 American diplomats, including the Ambassador John Mc Carthy, leave Lebanon.

\_this day in full the books also date it 16 November 1989 \_on this day

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According to Hanf and Fisk, the embassy closed after demonstrations by Aoun's supporters. A first youth protest at the embassy, against Western 'silence', took place in April 1989.

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