Operation Grapes of Wrath
Encyclopedia
Operation Grapes of Wrath is the Israeli Defense Forces code-name (Hezbollah calls it April War) for a sixteen-day campaign against Lebanon in 1996 in an attempt to end shelling of Northern Israel by Hezbollah. Israel conducted more than 1,100 air raids
and extensive shelling (some 25,132 shells). A UN installation was also hit by Israeli shelling causing the death of 118 Lebanese civilians (Amnesty 1996). 639 Hezbollah cross-border rocket attacks targeted northern Israel, particularly the town of Kiryat Shemona (HRW 1997). Hezbollah forces also participated in numerous engagements with Israeli and South Lebanon Army
forces. The conflict was de-escalated on 27 April by a ceasefire agreement banning attacks on civilians.
. After three months it occupied the capital city of Beirut. Over the next three years the Israeli army partially withdrew, until in 1985 it established what it called the "Security Buffer Zone" in Southern Lebanon. Armed resistance against Israeli occupation never stopped and in 1993 Israel responded with a massive attack against Lebanon (Operation Accountability
) to disrupt the actions of Hezbollah, the major resistance force. The military campaign ended in a ceasefire banning civilian targets on both sides. Hezbollah later broke the agreement, and continued attacking targets in both Lebanon and northern Israel, including Israeli armed forces, South Lebanon Army
militia and civilian areas. The Israeli military shelled targets often in very close proximity to or inside civilian areas, frequently causing the death of many civilians. In April 1996, Israel decided it would once again attempt to subdue Hezbollah, and Operation Grapes of Wrath was launched.
(SLA) on one hand and Hezbollah and other Lebanese militias (such as Amal
) on the other was often intense prior to late March 1996, it was largely restricted to the Israeli controlled area of South Lebanon and military targets.
On 30 March, two men were killed by an IDF missile while working on a water tower in Yater, Lebanon. Hezbollah responded by launching 20 missiles into northern Israel and the IDF acknowledged the attack as a mistake. A roadside bomb explosion that caused the death of a 14-year old Lebanese boy and injury of three others in the village of Barashit was cited by Hezbollah as the reason for firing 30 missiles into northern Israel on 9 April. (UNIFIL 1996; Amnesty 1996) Israeli officials announced Operation Grapes of Wrath on 11 April as a retaliatory and preventative action for Hezbollah shelling, which had injured six Israeli civilians. (Amnesty 1996)
Beginning 13 April, Israel blockaded the ports of Beirut
, Sidon
and Tyre. Near Beirut, a Syrian military post was bombed on 12 April by Israeli aircraft, resulting in the death of one soldier and injuring seven others. On 14 April and 15, the Beirut area electric power stations at Jumhour and Bsaleem were attacked (HRW 1996).
1997) to 170 Lebanese (ICRC
1997) were killed in Lebanon in attacks, including more than 106 civilians who died in the Qana shelling
and 9 civilians killed in an attack in Nabatiyeh when Israeli warplanes rocketed a two-story building where they were sleeping. The Israeli air force said that anti-aircraft fire was directed at its planes from the area around the building. Amnesty International was not able to confirm whether or not those said were true.
Some 350 civilians were wounded in Lebanon (HRW 1997). 62 Israeli civilians were wounded in Israel. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%20Obstacle%20to%20Peace/Terrorism%20from%20Lebanon-%20Hizbullah/SUMMARY%20OF%20KATYUSHA%20ATTACKS%20-%2021-Apr-96http://hrw.org/reports/1997/isrleb/Isrleb-02.htm#P635_149465
The damage to the Lebanese infrastructure was significant as major bridges and power stations were destroyed. According to Human Rights Watch, 2018 houses and buildings in South Lebanon were either completely destroyed or severely bombarded. Lebanon's total economic damage was estimated at $500 million by economist Marwan Iskandar (and endorsed as accurate by the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies): $140 million in rebuilding damaged infrastructure, $30 million for assisting those displaced, $260 million in lost economic output, and $70 million in losses due to delays in economic projects.http://www.lcps-lebanon.org/pub/tlr/96/sum96/grapes_wrath_cost.html
Israel estimated the total damage it suffered at 150 million NIS (about $53 million). Earlier, the damage to Israeli civilian property was estimated at 20 million NIS (about $7 million), and the indirect damage to Israel's tourism industry at 40 million NIS (about $13 million) http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%20Obstacle%20to%20Peace/Terrorism%20from%20Lebanon-%20Hizbullah/SUMMARY%20OF%20KATYUSHA%20ATTACKS%20-%2021-Apr-96.
Israeli Prime Minister
Shimon Peres
mounted an intense campaign to persuade the Lebanese that this punishment had come down upon them because of Hezbollah’s continued presence and anti-IDF activities and that they had only to repudiate and dismantle Hezbollah for it to stop. But because of Hezbollah’s political activities over the preceding years, virtually the entire Lebanese body politic closed ranks around it. Not only was there no mention of “dismantling” Hezbollah, but the agreement—signed by Lebanon, Israel, the United States
, France
, and Syria
—specifically allowed Hezbollah to continue its military activities against IDF forces inside Lebanon.
as motivations for its actions and policies towards the United States of America. Mohamed Atta
is described in Lawrence Wright
's account of the 11 September 2001 attacks to have committed himself to martyrdom in immediate response to the Israel strikes at the beginning of Operation Grapes of Wrath.
In his 23 August 1996 declaration of jihad against the United States, Osama bin Laden
wrote (addressing his fellow Muslims), "Your blood has been spilt in Palestine and Iraq, and the horrific image of the massacre in Qana in Lebanon are still fresh in people’s minds." In November 1996, he told the Australian journal Nida'ul Islam about Qana again, saying that when the United States government accuses terrorists of killing innocents it is "accusing others of their own afflictions in order to fool the masses."
had originally called for a ceasefire on 18 April 1996, in Resolution 1052
. Hostilities retreated from their escalated level following the reaching of an Israeli-Lebanese Ceasefire Understanding
– an informal written agreement – under American diplomatic auspices. The understanding was announced at 18:00, 26 April 1996, and became effective at 04:00 on 27 April.
The agreement barred cross-border attacks on civilian targets, as well as using civilian villages to launch attacks. The Monitoring Committee for the Implementation of the Grapes of Wrath Understandings was set up, comprising representatives from the U.S., France, Syria, Israel and Lebanon. The committee convenes to monitor and discuss infringements of the understandings by the two sides.
(chapter 14 verses 19 and 20). It was a well-known idea in 19th century American
Christian eschatology
and it appears most notably in the abolitionist hymn The Battle Hymn of the Republic
:-
The irony (and potential controversy) of an Israeli military operation being named after a Christian religious doctrine was not entirely lost on the Israeli press. However, most commentators either believed the title was a reference from the Old Testament
or that the phrase merely referred to John Steinbeck
's novel of the same name
.
Airstrike
An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...
and extensive shelling (some 25,132 shells). A UN installation was also hit by Israeli shelling causing the death of 118 Lebanese civilians (Amnesty 1996). 639 Hezbollah cross-border rocket attacks targeted northern Israel, particularly the town of Kiryat Shemona (HRW 1997). Hezbollah forces also participated in numerous engagements with Israeli and South Lebanon Army
South Lebanon Army
The South Lebanon Army , also "South Lebanese Army," was a Lebanese militia during the Lebanese Civil War. After 1979, the militia operated in southern Lebanon under the authority of Saad Haddad's Government of Free Lebanon...
forces. The conflict was de-escalated on 27 April by a ceasefire agreement banning attacks on civilians.
Historical background
The Israeli army invaded Lebanon for the second time in 1982, starting the 1982 Lebanon War1982 Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...
. After three months it occupied the capital city of Beirut. Over the next three years the Israeli army partially withdrew, until in 1985 it established what it called the "Security Buffer Zone" in Southern Lebanon. Armed resistance against Israeli occupation never stopped and in 1993 Israel responded with a massive attack against Lebanon (Operation Accountability
Operation Accountability
On July 25, 1993, Israeli forces launched a week-long attack against Lebanon named Operation Accountability in Israel and the Seven-Day War in Lebanon...
) to disrupt the actions of Hezbollah, the major resistance force. The military campaign ended in a ceasefire banning civilian targets on both sides. Hezbollah later broke the agreement, and continued attacking targets in both Lebanon and northern Israel, including Israeli armed forces, South Lebanon Army
South Lebanon Army
The South Lebanon Army , also "South Lebanese Army," was a Lebanese militia during the Lebanese Civil War. After 1979, the militia operated in southern Lebanon under the authority of Saad Haddad's Government of Free Lebanon...
militia and civilian areas. The Israeli military shelled targets often in very close proximity to or inside civilian areas, frequently causing the death of many civilians. In April 1996, Israel decided it would once again attempt to subdue Hezbollah, and Operation Grapes of Wrath was launched.
Casus belli
While armed conflict between the IDF and South Lebanon ArmySouth Lebanon Army
The South Lebanon Army , also "South Lebanese Army," was a Lebanese militia during the Lebanese Civil War. After 1979, the militia operated in southern Lebanon under the authority of Saad Haddad's Government of Free Lebanon...
(SLA) on one hand and Hezbollah and other Lebanese militias (such as Amal
Amal Movement
Amal Movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments the acronym for which, in Arabic, is "amal", meaning "hope."Amal was founded in 1975 as the militia wing of the Movement of the Disinherited, a Shi'a political movement founded by Musa...
) on the other was often intense prior to late March 1996, it was largely restricted to the Israeli controlled area of South Lebanon and military targets.
On 30 March, two men were killed by an IDF missile while working on a water tower in Yater, Lebanon. Hezbollah responded by launching 20 missiles into northern Israel and the IDF acknowledged the attack as a mistake. A roadside bomb explosion that caused the death of a 14-year old Lebanese boy and injury of three others in the village of Barashit was cited by Hezbollah as the reason for firing 30 missiles into northern Israel on 9 April. (UNIFIL 1996; Amnesty 1996) Israeli officials announced Operation Grapes of Wrath on 11 April as a retaliatory and preventative action for Hezbollah shelling, which had injured six Israeli civilians. (Amnesty 1996)
Operation
In the early morning of 11 April, Israeli aircraft and artillery began an intensive bombardment of southern Lebanon as well as targets in the Beirut area and in the Bekaa Valley. The declared objective of these attacks was to put pressure on the Government of Lebanon so that it would curb the activities of Hezbollah. Israel conducted air raids, on targets which included Katyusha launchers, Hezbollah installations and personnel, as well as vehicles and civilian infrastructure, some of which Israel said were being used for military purposes. The raids were accompanied by radio broadcasts urging residents to flee the area. Somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 did so.Beginning 13 April, Israel blockaded the ports of Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Sidon
Sidon
Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...
and Tyre. Near Beirut, a Syrian military post was bombed on 12 April by Israeli aircraft, resulting in the death of one soldier and injuring seven others. On 14 April and 15, the Beirut area electric power stations at Jumhour and Bsaleem were attacked (HRW 1996).
Aftermath
Altogether, some 154 civilians (HRWHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
1997) to 170 Lebanese (ICRC
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...
1997) were killed in Lebanon in attacks, including more than 106 civilians who died in the Qana shelling
1996 shelling of Qana
The 1996 shelling of Qana or the First Qana massacre, took place on April 18, 1996 near Qana, a village in Southern Lebanon, when artillery shells fired by the Israeli Defence Force hit a United Nations compound. Of 800 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge in the compound, 106 were killed and...
and 9 civilians killed in an attack in Nabatiyeh when Israeli warplanes rocketed a two-story building where they were sleeping. The Israeli air force said that anti-aircraft fire was directed at its planes from the area around the building. Amnesty International was not able to confirm whether or not those said were true.
Some 350 civilians were wounded in Lebanon (HRW 1997). 62 Israeli civilians were wounded in Israel. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%20Obstacle%20to%20Peace/Terrorism%20from%20Lebanon-%20Hizbullah/SUMMARY%20OF%20KATYUSHA%20ATTACKS%20-%2021-Apr-96http://hrw.org/reports/1997/isrleb/Isrleb-02.htm#P635_149465
The damage to the Lebanese infrastructure was significant as major bridges and power stations were destroyed. According to Human Rights Watch, 2018 houses and buildings in South Lebanon were either completely destroyed or severely bombarded. Lebanon's total economic damage was estimated at $500 million by economist Marwan Iskandar (and endorsed as accurate by the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies): $140 million in rebuilding damaged infrastructure, $30 million for assisting those displaced, $260 million in lost economic output, and $70 million in losses due to delays in economic projects.http://www.lcps-lebanon.org/pub/tlr/96/sum96/grapes_wrath_cost.html
Israel estimated the total damage it suffered at 150 million NIS (about $53 million). Earlier, the damage to Israeli civilian property was estimated at 20 million NIS (about $7 million), and the indirect damage to Israel's tourism industry at 40 million NIS (about $13 million) http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%20Obstacle%20to%20Peace/Terrorism%20from%20Lebanon-%20Hizbullah/SUMMARY%20OF%20KATYUSHA%20ATTACKS%20-%2021-Apr-96.
Israeli Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
mounted an intense campaign to persuade the Lebanese that this punishment had come down upon them because of Hezbollah’s continued presence and anti-IDF activities and that they had only to repudiate and dismantle Hezbollah for it to stop. But because of Hezbollah’s political activities over the preceding years, virtually the entire Lebanese body politic closed ranks around it. Not only was there no mention of “dismantling” Hezbollah, but the agreement—signed by Lebanon, Israel, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
—specifically allowed Hezbollah to continue its military activities against IDF forces inside Lebanon.
Response by Al-Qaeda associated individuals
The deaths of civilians in Operation Grapes of Wrath and in particular at Qana have been cited by Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
as motivations for its actions and policies towards the United States of America. Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.Born in 1968...
is described in Lawrence Wright
Lawrence Wright
Lawrence Wright is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, screenwriter, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law...
's account of the 11 September 2001 attacks to have committed himself to martyrdom in immediate response to the Israel strikes at the beginning of Operation Grapes of Wrath.
In his 23 August 1996 declaration of jihad against the United States, Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
wrote (addressing his fellow Muslims), "Your blood has been spilt in Palestine and Iraq, and the horrific image of the massacre in Qana in Lebanon are still fresh in people’s minds." In November 1996, he told the Australian journal Nida'ul Islam about Qana again, saying that when the United States government accuses terrorists of killing innocents it is "accusing others of their own afflictions in order to fool the masses."
Ceasefire
The United Nations Security CouncilUnited Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
had originally called for a ceasefire on 18 April 1996, in Resolution 1052
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1052
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1052, adopted unanimously on April 18, 1996, after recalling previous resolutions on Israel and Lebanon, including 425 , the Council called for an immediate ceasefire during the 1996 Lebanon war....
. Hostilities retreated from their escalated level following the reaching of an Israeli-Lebanese Ceasefire Understanding
Israeli-Lebanese Ceasefire Understanding
The Israeli–Lebanese Ceasefire Understanding was an informal written agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, reached through the diplomatic efforts of the US, which ended the 1996 military conflict between the two sides...
– an informal written agreement – under American diplomatic auspices. The understanding was announced at 18:00, 26 April 1996, and became effective at 04:00 on 27 April.
The agreement barred cross-border attacks on civilian targets, as well as using civilian villages to launch attacks. The Monitoring Committee for the Implementation of the Grapes of Wrath Understandings was set up, comprising representatives from the U.S., France, Syria, Israel and Lebanon. The committee convenes to monitor and discuss infringements of the understandings by the two sides.
Origins of name
The phrase "grapes of wrath" is a reference from the Book of RevelationBook of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
(chapter 14 verses 19 and 20). It was a well-known idea in 19th century American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
and it appears most notably in the abolitionist hymn The Battle Hymn of the Republic
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is a hymn by American writer Julia Ward Howe using the music from the song "John Brown's Body". Howe's more famous lyrics were written in November 1861 and first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. It became popular during the American Civil War...
:-
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
The irony (and potential controversy) of an Israeli military operation being named after a Christian religious doctrine was not entirely lost on the Israeli press. However, most commentators either believed the title was a reference from the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
or that the phrase merely referred to John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
's novel of the same name
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
.
External links
- The Real Israeli Interests in Lebanon by Israel ShahakIsrael ShahakIsrael Shahak was a Polish-born Israeli professor of chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, known especially as a radical political thinker, author, and civil rights activist. Between 1970-1990, he was president of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights and was an outspoken critic...
, in the Washington Report on Middle East AffairsWashington Report on Middle East AffairsThe Washington Report on Middle East Affairs magazine, published nine times per year in Washington, D.C., focuses on "news and analysis from and about the Middle East and U.S...
, July 1996, pages 19 and 11 - www.lebanon-israel.info An ongoing discussion on the Lebanon-Israel conflict