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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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December 21, 1980sunday
The situation worsened in Zahleh under heavy bombardments. These confrontations between Zahliotes and soldiers from the Arab Strike Force continued until December 26 when a cease-fire eased the tension.
\_this day in full the books also date it 20 December 1980, 22 December 1980 \_on this day
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The crisis began on 20 December when Elias Hannouche, a former Tiger commander backed by Syria, seized the old National Liberal office in Zahle. After an ambush inside the town killed five Syrian soldiers on 22 December, Syrian artillery opened fire on it (Ménargues; Hanf counts an officer and five soldiers). De Clerck and Malsagne date the bombardment to 21 December and call it the first round of the battle of Zahle. Most of the former Tigers then joined the Lebanese Forces, and Syrian troops stayed positioned around the town until the siege of spring 1981.
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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February 4, 1981wednesday
February 13, 1981friday
The kidnapping on February 6 in Beirut of the chargé d'affaires of Jordan in Lebanon, remained at the center of preoccupation of the country's leaders. They adopted a series of security measures for the protection of embassies.
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February 14, 1981saturday
February 18, 1981wednesday
The Council of Ministers centered part of its deliberations to the Sodeco region that was catching fire on a daily basis. Chafic Wazzan pledged to cease the fire.
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February 19, 1981thursday
His Beatitude Bishop Maximos V Hakim escaped a killing attempt on the road of Bhamdoun. The aggressors' identity was unknown.
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February 24, 1981tuesday
Shells from different calibers fell on the Eastern residential neighborhoods, spreading destruction, fires, and terror. The population wondered why these blind bombardments were perpetrated and until when would they continue.
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July 2, 1981thursday
The Sodeco crossing way was officially opened to traffic. But the calm didn't last for more than 2 days, as snipers were back into action.
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July 4, 1981saturday
The Arab Foreign Affairs Ministers met in Beiteddine. However, no concrete measure was taken, it was a total impasse.
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Ménargues lists the participants as Syrian foreign minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, the Arab League's representative and the Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors, Ali Chaër and Abdel Hamid Bouayajane. That day a general strike against the Syrian presence shut down the Christian regions.
July 8, 1981wednesday
The chief of State Elias Sarkis, met with Bechir Gemayel and Pierre Gemayel. He announced after the meeting that he was given guarantees concerning the rupture of the relations with Israel.
\_this day in full the books also date it 6 July 1981 \_on this day
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Bashir Gemayel's pledge took the form of a letter to President Sarkis dated 6 July, which Sarkis never published (Ménargues).
July 10, 1981friday
In retaliation to an air raid launched by Israel in Southern Lebanon, the Palestinians bombarded Kyriat Shmona injuring 14 Israelis.
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Ménargues counts 6 dead and 20 wounded in the two raids, on Democratic Front sites at Habbouch (near Nabatiyeh) and Ghaziyeh (near Sidon). Hanf dates the Israel–PLO 'Fourteen Day War' from them.
July 16, 1981thursday
Within a few hours, the Israeli aviation destroyed 9 bridges in Southern Lebanon cutting off the supply roads of the Palestinian forces. 32 persons were killed and 97 were injured in just one day.
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Ménargues counts six bridges over the Awali and Litani destroyed in the raids. The Palestinians replied the same day with some 2,000 shells and rockets on Nahariya and Kiryat Shmona.
July 17, 1981friday
Tel Aviv launched the bloodiest attack against Lebanon.
Israel bombarded the central district in Beirut, the headquarters of the Fateh, of the Democratic Palestinian Liberation Front and of the Popular Palestinian Liberation Front, killing 141 and injuring 730. This was the first time that Israel targeted the heart of a residential area in Beirut.
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The raid targeted PLO offices in the Fakhani district of West Beirut. Tolls differ: Ménargues gives 191 dead and over 730 wounded; Fisk and Picard about 300 dead; Hanf hundreds killed and over a thousand hurt, chiefly civilians.
July 21, 1981tuesday
While the bombardment continued in South Lebanon, the Security Council ordered a cease-fire; but the latter wasn't observed despite the presence of the US envoy Philip Habib in the region.
\_this day in full the books also date it 22 July 1981 \_on this day
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Ménargues dates to 22 July Reagan's indefinite freeze on F-16 deliveries to Israel and a unanimous Security Council call for an immediate cease-fire, which Arafat accepted at once.
July 24, 1981friday
Philip Habib finally succeeded in his mission. A cease-fire was reached and accepted by both the Israelis and the Palestinians.
\_this day in full the books also date it 17 July 1981 \_on this day
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The cease-fire came from separate talks with Israel and the PLO, helped by Saudi diplomats (Hanf), with the UN relaying to the PLO (Ménargues, Fisk). Border fire was to stop; Syria could keep its Bekaa missiles unused, and Israeli overflights continued. In Ménargues's account a last Israeli demand held up Israel's public acceptance for two days.
July 27, 1981monday
The EDL started an electricity rationing program. There was a bad shortage of fuel due to the Israeli bombardment of the Zahrani oil refinery.
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December 7, 1981monday
A Sadrist commando hijacked a Libyan airplane at the Beirut International Airport. The air pirates who held 43 hostages, injured a passenger and threatened to execute him in order to have the plane refueled. The aggressors called upon Khadafi to liberate the Imam.
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December 10, 1981thursday
December 15, 1981tuesday
A bomb attack destroyed the Iraqi embassy. 20 persons were killed including the ambassador and 100 were wounded.
\_this day in full the books also date it 16 December 1981 \_on this day
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Ménargues dates the bombing to 16 December. The six-storey embassy at Ramlet al-Baida was destroyed by an explosives-laden car driven by Shiite suicide attackers; a group nobody knew claimed it, and the ambassador's body took four days to find. It followed heavy fighting in West Beirut on 4 December between Amal and pro-Iraqi Baathists, and a Lebanese Forces visit to Baghdad.
December 19, 1981saturday
February 1, 1982monday
The inflow of heavy Israeli weapons on the Lebanese territory continued. These weapons were installed in the borderline enclave controlled by Saad Haddad.
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February 4, 1982thursday
The investigation conducted in Italy on the vanishing of the Shiite Imam Moussa Sadr ended. The Italians were convinced that the Imam never left Libya.
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February 8, 1982monday
Israel reiterated its threats against the South, while Lebanon continued its contacts to eliminate the dangers weighing on the Southern zone and to increase the number of UNIFL soldiers in the area.
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February 13, 1982saturday
A car bomb exploded next to the Palestinian camp of Ain El Heloueh killing 6 persons and injuring 12 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.
February 17, 1982wednesday
Tension rose in North Lebanon where serious incidents were reported. Armed elements opened fire on a checkpoint of the Arab Strike Force. The combats continued for the following days, killing 18 persons and injuring 40.
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Hanf sets this fighting in a contest for Tripoli: with the local Sunni militia on their side, the Palestinians resisted Syria's bid to dominate the north.
February 23, 1982tuesday
Two car bombs killed 4 persons and injured 54 others in Raoucheh.
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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.
February 24, 1982wednesday
A commando of the partisans of the Imam Moussa Sadr burst into the Beirut International Airport and took control of a Boeing 707 of the Kuwait Airways that had just landed with 195 passengers on board. The negotiations led to the release of the passengers. The commando members surrendered to the Arab Strike Force. After this incident, the Kuwaiti company interrupted its flights to Beirut.
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February 25, 1982thursday
February 27, 1982saturday
The explosion of a car bomb killed 4 persons and wounded 26 others in Ouzaï.
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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.
July 2, 1982friday
In a press conference held at the Alexander hotel, the Israeli Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, invited the Lebanese to fight against the Palestinians.
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Bashir Gemayel, back from Saudi Arabia on 2 July, said the PLO did not mean to leave. Two hours earlier, at the Alexandre Hotel, Sharon had told reporters, Robert Fisk among them, that Israel's only aim was to destroy the PLO and it wanted not 'one square inch' of Lebanon.
July 3, 1982saturday
While waiting for the PLO's response to the Israeli conditions, West Beirut was under a tight blockade.
\_this day in full the books also date it 2 July 1982 \_on this day
July 4, 1982sunday
Without renouncing to the diplomatic option, Israel toughened the pressure on Beirut, by depriving its inhabitants of water and electricity.
\_this day in full the books also date it 5 July 1982, 26 July 1982 \_on this day
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A US-backed Security Council resolution demanded that West Beirut's water and power be restored; Lebanon's minister of hydroelectric resources called the Israeli step 'inhuman'. Fisk dates the cut to early on 5 July, when Israel switched off electricity and water and barred food, having reduced power since the third week of June. Ménargues describes a further cut on 26 July.
July 5, 1982monday
The Israelis controlled the Beirut International Airport where violent fights opposed them to the Palestinian-Progressive Joint Forces.
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