lebanese war
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1975/1990
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153 news for the 4th, 5th, 20th of every month

with the books

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February 5, 1975wednesday
The Arab Defense Committee gathered in Cairo, voted 90 million dollars for the defense of Lebanon.

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May 20, 1975tuesday
Five people were killed and 24 were wounded in Dekwaneh
Violent confrontations opposed Palestinians from the Tell El Zaatar camp and Phalange Party members. Businesses were closed in protest against the lack of security.

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August 5, 1975tuesday
Israel launched air, land and sea attacks against Tyr, killing 18 persons and injuring 29.

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October 4, 1975saturday
Interior Security Forces held in check a land attack against the Beirut International Airport where 4 armed men tried to kidnap an airplane in order to go to Cairo.

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January 5, 1976monday
After a delay of three months, the American University of Beirut inaugurated its academic year 1975-1976.

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January 20, 1976tuesday
Damour massacre
Avenging the massacre of Karantina by Christian forces 2 days before, Palestinians and leftist Muslims attacked the Christian city of Damour, located about 20 kilometers south of Beirut, and murdered 350 civilians.

\_this day in full the books also date it 9 January 1976, 16 January 1976, 19 January 1976, 22 January 1976, 24 January 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The siege of Damour had begun on 9 January, before the fall of Karantina; the main massacre began on 20 January (Hanf, Ménargues, Fisk, de Clerck and Malsagne; Traboulsi gives 22 or 24 January). Jiyeh fell the same day. The attackers were mainly PLA, Saiqa and Fatah units, with Lebanese leftist parties. Estimates of the dead range from about 150 bodies found plus 200 missing (Fisk) and 300-584 (de Clerck and Malsagne) to about 900 (Ménargues); some 5,000 people fled by land and sea.

May 4, 1976tuesday
Air France suspended its flights. It was the last foreign airline that was still flying to Lebanon.

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July 5, 1976monday
The PLO and their allies launched a massive offensive against the Kura and the Christian town of Chekka north of Beirut.

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Hanf writes that once Jisr al-Pasha fell on 1 July the Palestinians struck in the north, taking coastal Chekka from Tripoli by way of the Koura, with massacres, looting and arson. A Lebanese Front counter-attack with army tanks reached Tripoli's outskirts.

September 4, 1976saturday
Bleeding continued in the ports. Massive emigration went on in the same intensity. Hundreds of families flew every day by sea escaping from hell.

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Historians disagree on 1976: Haugbolle ranks it among the war's largest emigration waves, while de Clerck and Malsagne see many returning that year after nearly 400,000 Lebanese had left by 1975. Haugbolle notes that no official figures exist.

November 20, 1976saturday
The third phase of the peace plan started. 250 tanks and 11 battalions entered Zghorta, Ehden, Tripoli and the Koura. In South Lebanon, the 'Green Helmets' took position in Saïda, and Zahrani. The Arab Dissuasion Force was not able to enter Tyr, Nabatyeh, Marjeyoun, and Masnaa because of the Israeli opposition to any Arab military presence beyond its famous 'red line'.

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Israel, Hanf notes, would accept no Arab troops south of the 'red line', Syrian ones least of all. When a Syrian unit entered Nabatiyeh in January 1977, an Israeli protest got it withdrawn and the Palestinians kept the town.

December 4, 1976saturday
A violent explosion hit the district of Mousseytbeh, where a bomb exploded next to Kamal Joumblatt's house, killing 4 persons and seriously injuring 20 others.

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February 4, 1977friday
The Government promulgated a decree concerning wartime conflicts between owners and renters.
The decree stipulated mainly that rent contracts remained operative, while backlogs will be staggered on 18 months with no interest for all rents under 5,000 Lebanese Pounds. As to destroyed properties, there were three possibilities: reconstruct, compensate the renters, or give them shares.

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April 5, 1977tuesday
The officials were satisfied with the ongoing excavations in the heart of the city where the most damaged sectors were located, for they exhumed valuable Phoenician, Roman and Byzantine vestiges.

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June 4, 1977saturday
The election of Miss Lebanon was organized at the Santa Teresa in Maameltein.

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September 20, 1977tuesday
While bombardments and fights were taking place along the border since September 16, Radio Israel announced that Israel had sent a warning to Syria, indicating that no Syrian troop movement will be tolerated in Southern Lebanon.

\_this day in full the books also date it 21 September 1977 \_on this day

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Robert Fisk, who reported from the area, saw Israeli tanks on Lebanese soil near Ibl al-Saqi and Israeli shelling of Christian villages such as Rachaya al-Fukhar, where Palestinian guerrillas had dug in.

November 5, 1977saturday
An odious murder was committed against Abdel-Hamid Ahdab. He was a strong defender of an inter-Lebanese dialogue in favor of an absolute allegiance to the country. The powerful explosion placed in Ahdab's residence killed his daughter and seriously injured him and his spouse. This criminal act was perpetrated against democracy, freedom of speech and reconciliation between the Lebanese.

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January 20, 1978friday
A new armament and US equipment shipment sent to the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces arrived at the Port of Beirut. It included a hundred armored vehicles and cistern trucks.

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June 4, 1978sunday
A 19 years old Lebanese pianist, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, won the longest and toughest international contest: the Queen Elisabeth Music Prize.

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June 5, 1978monday
Ghassan Tueini proposed, at the UN General Assembly, an 'international neutrality to protect Lebanon, because this country has no longer any other future besides explosion or invasion'. A UN force would take in charge the protection of the territory, while the army would devote its efforts to internal security and reconstruction.

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October 4, 1978wednesday
The bombardments reached Bikfaya and Beit-Mery while in East Beirut there was a shortage of food and medications. The Security Council called for the urgent ending of the combats.

\_this day in full the books also date it 6 October 1978 \_on this day

\_what the books add

According to de Clerck and Malsagne, the Security Council's call for a ceasefire came on 6 October.

November 4, 1978saturday
While the situation improved on the ground, Damascus liberated Ahmed Khatib, previously chief of the Army of Arab Lebanon.

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December 5, 1978tuesday
The Arab tripartite committee including Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors and a Syrian general, met in Baabda in presence of the chief of State. The committee excluded any immediate resort to the army.

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December 20, 1978wednesday
Following a governmental reshuffling, General Victor Khoury became Minister of Defense, replacing Fouad Boutros.

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January 5, 1979friday
Lebanon entered a complacency phase.
All sides seemed decided to wait for important regional developments to unfold in order to re-evaluate the situation and define the course of action. The situation was very tense in the South where the Israelis were shelling the Hasbaya region.

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February 5, 1979monday
New identity cards bearing no mention of religion, were also due to be released soon.

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March 20, 1979tuesday
A car bomb containing explosives operated by remote control, parked next to the military council of the Phalange Party was found. This attack aimed at the chief of the Lebanese Forces, Bechir Gemayel.

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June 4, 1979monday
Pierre Gemayel, Chief of the Phalange Party, escaped a killing attack in Nahr el Kalb.
The explosion slightly injured his head and killed one person and wounded about 10.

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August 20, 1979monday
A car bomb exploded prematurely in Achrafieh killing the two occupants of the vehicle. A disaster had just been avoided.

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September 20, 1979thursday
Numerous typhoid cases were reported in Lebanon but there hasn't been any epidemic outbreak in the country.

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October 4, 1979thursday
A light earthquake shook the region of Saida without any victim.

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October 4, 1979thursday
The Minister of Foreign affairs, Fouad Boutros, called upon the United Nations to end Israeli aggressions in the South, to freeze the activities of the Fedayin, to reinforce the UNIFL, and to dissociate the Lebanese problem from the regional crisis.

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February 5, 1980tuesday
Mgr Elias Audeh was elected the Greek Orthodox Metropolite of Beirut.

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March 4, 1980tuesday
The mutilated body of Selim Laouzi was found in the forests of Aramoun ten days after his kidnapping.

\_this day in full the books also date it 5 March 1980 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Fisk reads the mutilation of al-Lawzi's body as a warning to the Lebanese press: the flesh of his writing hand had been removed, by knife or acid, and two shots fired into his neck from behind. A shepherd found him, half under snow, in the Aramoun woods on 5 March.

March 5, 1980wednesday
In a message addressed to the Nation, the President of the Republic proclaimed the State's Arab and internal options. He rejected the Camp David agreements, and underlined the coordination between Lebanon and Syria wile respecting the sovereignty of both countries. Furthermore, he refused the idea of creating mini-states and reassured his attachment to freedom.

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Probably the text Picard lists as President Sarkis's 'Fourteen Points' (March 1980), one of the drafts that fed into the Taif Accord. Traboulsi notes that in that same month an American spokesman called on Lebanon to sign up to the Camp David accords.

March 5, 1980wednesday
Seven Zghortiotes were released in exchange of eleven Phalangists. The exchange of hostages took place after 5 months of detention.

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May 20, 1980tuesday
In a verbal message transmitted through the US ambassador John Gunther Dean, President Elias Sarkis urged the US President Carter to stop Lebanon's agony.

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July 4, 1980friday
Artillery duels and armed confrontations continued between the Phalange Party and the NLP in the regions of Wadi-Chahrour, Betchay, Bsous,Kfarchima, and their surroundings. 16 persons were killed and 20 others wounded. The next day, the Lebanese army took in charge the areas of Wadi-Chahrour, Betchay, Bsous, Kfarchima, Bsaba, and Bleibel in the Southern-Metn, ending the conflict between the Phalange Party and the NLP in the region.

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De Clerck and Malsagne list Wadi Chahrour and Kfarchima among the National Liberals' bases in Beirut's south-eastern suburbs and end the wave of clashes between Christian militias on 2 July 1980. Ménargues describes near-daily fighting in the second half of June. Bashir Gemayel settled the rivalry by force on 7 July.

July 20, 1980sunday
Takieddine Solh was asked, by the President of the Republic, to form a new Government of National Union.

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In Ménargues's account Damascus rejected Takieddine Solh, finding him too lukewarm about Lebanese–Syrian friendship, and offered three names instead, Selim Hoss's among them.

August 5, 1980tuesday
A Shiite Ulema, Sheikh Ali Badreddine, was found dead in the region of Zahrani.

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October 5, 1980sunday
While the war was raging between Iraq and Iran, assaults continued against several embassies in Beirut. After the US, the Iraqi, and the Iranian chancelleries, a load of dynamite was thrown on the Saudi embassy in Bliss Street at Ras-Beirut.

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