lebanese war
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1975/1990
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57 news for the 6th, 31st of every month

with the books

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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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August 31, 1975sunday
Despite the latest events, Demis Roussos sang in Beirut and put some balm on the hearts of the Lebanese people.

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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 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.

May 6, 1978saturday
Several civil victims were reported during a violent bombardment of Ain el Remmanneh. As usual, there were contradictory versions of the incident.

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May 31, 1978wednesday
A Sarkis-Assad summit was held in Lattaquieh. They discussed the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon, the military cooperation between the two countries, and the difficulties encountered in the pacification process in Lebanon.

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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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July 31, 1978monday
Lebanese Army units were dispatched to South Lebanon.
They remained there until the end of the year. Christian militias supported by Israel in the South stopped their advance.

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Hanf writes that Major Haddad's forces fired at Kaukaba on the units sent south in early August, men of the 'vanguard' Syria trusted, and drove them into retreat. Haddad later rebelled openly against the army command, and Israel took over paying his men.

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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April 6, 1979friday
A general strike to protest against the insufficient salary increase paralyzed the country. The syndicates granted a delay of 3 months to the government.

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May 6, 1979sunday
The Israeli aviation, aiming at a Palestinian target, killed five innocents and injured 15 others in a wedding ceremony in the Akkar. All the victims were Lebanese with, among them, several kids.

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May 31, 1979thursday
At the meeting of the Security Council, Lebanon claimed the reinforcement of the UNIFL. Moreover, Beirut requested the condemnation of Israel and the re-activation of the Armistice Commission.

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August 31, 1979friday
On the occasion of the first anniversary of the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr, a general strike paralyzed Beirut. For the first time Sheikh Mohammed Mehdi chamseddine accused the Libyans of his disappearance.

\_this day in full the books also date it 25 August 1978 \_on this day

March 6, 1980thursday
Units from the Arab Strike Force positioned in the Sin el Fil- Dekouaneh-Mekalles region started to gather in order to withdraw towards Jamhour-Aley. The total withdrawal should be executed by Saturday night and the Lebanese army would replace the Syrian soldiers.

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Hanf: clashes among the Christian militias grew more frequent after the partial Syrian withdrawal, which removed Syrian checkpoints on the roads into East Beirut and between Achrafieh and the Christian suburbs and gave the militias one unbroken territory for the first time since 1976.

May 31, 1980saturday
The Lebanese championship of athletics was held for the first time since 1975.

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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.

July 6, 1980sunday
Violent confrontations opposed in Ain Mreisse the Mourabitoun and the Arab Socialist Union. 3 persons died and 16 others were wounded.

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October 31, 1980friday
The Lebanese army evacuated Ain el Remmaneh and gathered on the Damascus road and on major Streets.

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De Clerck and Malsagne date Lebanese Forces control of East Beirut to this day; Ménargues dates the final takeover of Ain el-Remmaneh to late November. See the note on 27 October.

December 31, 1980wednesday
A Syrian-Israeli air fight took place in the Lebanese sky. Damascus admited that its two Migs were hit and that two Israeli airplanes were shot down. Tel-Aviv denied this information.

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January 31, 1981saturday
A violent storm hit Lebanon.
50 cars were totally stuck between Sofar and Mdeirej and their occupants spent the night in their vehicles. The Army was able to rescue 200 persons in the mountain.

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March 6, 1981friday
A TNT load exploded in Zahleh inside a travel agency, killing three persons and injuring 28 others.

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

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March 6, 1982saturday
Another car bomb exploded in Jnah killing 6 persons and injuring 17 others.

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De Clerck and Malsagne, drawing on Ronen Bergman, attribute to Ariel Sharon a series of car bombings from October 1981, carried out under the name 'Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners' and aimed chiefly at Palestinians, to provoke retaliation that could justify an invasion. They list no individual attacks, so this bombing cannot be matched to their account.

March 31, 1982wednesday
A new car bomb exploded next to the Abed clock killing 2 persons and wounding 4 others.

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De Clerck and Malsagne, drawing on Ronen Bergman, attribute to Ariel Sharon a series of car bombings from October 1981, carried out under the name 'Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners' and aimed chiefly at Palestinians, to provoke retaliation that could justify an invasion. They list no individual attacks, so this bombing cannot be matched to their account.

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.

July 6, 1982tuesday
The US President, Ronald Reagan, decided to send American troops to Lebanon in order to reestablish peace and evacuate the Fedayin.

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July 31, 1982saturday
Around a hundred women from West Beirut headed by the Prime Minister's wife, Whajiha Wazzan, gathered in the American University of Beirut for an open sit-in to protest against the blockade of West Beirut.

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August 6, 1982friday
The Accra building occupied by refugees collapsed during an Israeli air raid on Beirut, provoking the death of 250 persons.

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

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In rue Aussi near Sanayeh park a car bomb exploded among rescuers minutes after Israeli bombs levelled two five-storey blocks, says Robert Fisk's dispatch datelined West Beirut, 5 August; a neighbour put over 100 people, mostly squatters from the camps and the south, beneath the rubble. Arafat had reportedly met there just before.

August 31, 1982tuesday
As the Arab Strike force was achieving its withdrawal from Beirut, Israeli fighters shoot a Mig 25 over Antelias.

\_this day in full the books also date it 1 September 1982 \_on this day

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.

April 6, 1983wednesday
The government decided to raise the salaries in the private sector: 10% up to 2500 LP, 9% raging from 2501 to 4000 LP, and 4% above 4000 LP.

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October 31, 1983monday
The dialog conference opened in Geneva. This national reconciliation conference represented the only hope for the Lebanese.

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The conference sat from 31 October to 4 November (Picard has 1 to 8 November), with Syria's foreign minister Khaddam present and Prime Minister Wazzan kept out by a Syrian veto. Amine Gemayel chaired; Camille Chamoun and Pierre Gemayel spoke for the Lebanese Front, Frangieh, Jumblatt and Karami for the opposition, Saeb Salam for the Sunnis, Adel Osseiran for the Shi'is.

November 6, 1983sunday
The situation was dramatic in Tripoli. Inter-Palestinian fights claimed 500 deaths and 875 injured.

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The fighting set Fatah dissidents under Abu Musa, Syrian artillery and pro-Syrian Lebanese parties against Arafat's loyalists and the Sunni Tawhid militia. Hanf writes that in early November it took on the character of a Sunni-Alawite civil war, and that Tawhid fighters killed hundreds of communists.

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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October 31, 1984wednesday
The United Nations Secretary General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, convoked a Lebanese-Israeli conference to be held on November 5 in Nakoura under the aegis of the United Nations. The negotiations aimed at making security arrangements for the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

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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.

March 6, 1985wednesday
The Lebanese Pound reached a new record, with over a 19 Pounds drop in value. The pound had lost half its value compared to the dollar since the beginning of the year.

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See the note on 4 February: Hanf's yearly table puts the pound at 16 to the dollar for 1985.

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