Battle of Wadi Saluki - Aftermath

Aftermath

Operation Changing Direction 11 "was meant to be a large, broad ground operation, which would fundamentally alter reality in Southern Lebanon and the image of the operation in the military sense." After the heavy casualties in battles of Sulouqi/al-Hujeir and Maryamein plain landings Operation Change of Direction 11 "faded away on its own", the illusions of the Israeli leadership "imploded" and its only concern was how to end the war as quickly as possible. According to a Knesset inquiry "Israel did not succeed in defeating the enemy, which is made up of only a couple of thousands."

In spite of the ceasefire only taking effect in the morning of August 14, the IDF had stopped most offensive actions already by the night 12 August, or early morning of August 13. The IDF never reached the Litani as planned. According to Harel and Issacharoff operation Change of Direction 11 was a "gargantuan failure" that "failed to meet its objectives". Most of the divisions did not even reach the sectors that were earmarked for them. Katyusha fire was not reduced. On the last day of the war more than 250 rockets were fired on Israel. On the same day Israeli TV filmed a Katyusha being fired from a village next to Metulla, less than a kilometer from the border.

The IDF wanted to withdraw from the positions it had captured in the operation as quickly as possible, fearing that its soldiers would become "sitting ducks for guerrilla actions". However, no such actions took place. In some minor clashes six Hizbullah militants were allegedly killed by the IDF, but there was no large-scale violations of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire. Also, Israeli forces did not respond to rockets fired by Hizbullah during the night of 15 August, as none of them crossed into Northern Israel. At the time of the cease-fire more than 20 damaged Israeli tanks and armored vehicles were left stranded inside Lebanese territory and the IDF was working hard to bring them back to Israel. Due to the difficulties in removing them the army was considering bombing them from the air "so as not to allow Hizbullah terrorists to wave their flags over them after the war." After the ceasefire was signed, Israel started to withdraw from its forward positions and handed them over to the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL. Israel completed the withdrawal within the start of October.

In the last three days of the war 34 Israeli soldiers were killed and 447 were wounded while 1 civilian was killed and 157 civilians were wounded. The main objective of the operation, the reduction of the missile attacks on Israeli north, was not accomplished. According to Israeli statistics over 400 missiles were fired in the last three days of the war.

General Tzur held a press conference lauding the accomplishments of the IDF in the Sulouqi crossing. Some of the present reporters questioned what exactly was gained in the battle. "Let’s take a look at it. Immediately after crossing the obstacle with considerable losses, you ordered a halt. And now, there’s a cease-fire and the IDF is going to pull out of the forward positions that it captured, so what the hell did the soldiers die for?" Tzur refused to answer the question and referred it to his superiors.

According to Haaretz an anonymous "highly placed" American official, Operation Changing Direction 11 significantly affected the text of the UNSCR 1701 in favor of Israel. Later Haaretz learned that the Israeli government had received the final version of the resolution before the final operation was launched. Ministry document shows only slight variations in resolution drafts that Olmert used to authorize ground raid. United States UN ambassador John Bolton denied that the Security Council negotiations were affected by the events on the ground. In fact the implementation of the operation was postponed for two days in anticipation of the negotiations in the Security Council. It was finally initiated in the evening of August 11 only hours before the Security Council approved of the resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Resolution 1701 called for the "disarmament of all armed groups" in Lebanon in accordance with the Taif Accords, and of Security Council resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006). Hizballah accepted a ceasefire but did not accept to be disarmed until the last Israeli occupation soldier had left Lebanese territory. That included according to Hizballah the Shebaa farms occupied by Israel in the 1967 war and this position was supported by the Lebanese government.

To avoid future conflicts with the UNIFIL a compromise agreement was hammered out between Hizballah and the Lebanese government that Hizballah weapons south on the Litani had to be kept hidden. Lebanon's Defense Minister Elias Murr denied that the Lebanese army would disarm Hizballah. "The army is not going to the south to strip Hezbollah of weapons and do the work Israel did not."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, however, stated that if Hizbullah did not disarm, Israel would continue with what he termed "a long, hard, arduous, complex fight."

According to a survey done after the ceasefire, only 3 percent of Israelis believed that the country achieved most or all of its pre-war objectives while 58 percent believed that Israel achieved few if any objectives in the war. Only six percent of respondents said they thought the Security Council resolution was good, against 66 percent who thought it was not good. A full 38 percent said the deal was not good but Israel had no choice but to accept it.

Former chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon dismissed the operation as a "spin move": "It had no substantive security-political goal, only a spin goal. It was meant to supply the missing victory picture. You don't do that. You don't send soldiers to carry out a futile mission after the political outcome has already been set. I consider that corrupt."

Ron Tira writes that "the fact that several hundred Hizbollah fighters faced up to four Israeli divisions and the Israel Air Force, and ended the war standing up after inflicting significant damage on IDF forces, may also generate indirect results that are at best problematic."

Following the end of the war, Hizbullah started building a new defensive line north of the Litani river.