Battle of Bint Jbeil - Aftermath

Aftermath

Israel sent the elite of its regular forces, the Golani infantry brigade and the Paratroopers brigade to Bint Jbeil. The IDF enjoyed a tremendous superiority both in numbers and firepower as well as absolute air superiority. The over 5,000 IDF soldiers laying a siege around the town were faced by little more than 100 Hizbullah fighters. The IDF failed to conquer the town or to make any other tangible operational achievements. According to Kober the Israeli withdrawal was "correctly interpreted by Hizballah as a great victory for the organization.

The Winograd Commission devoted a special chapter to the battle of Bint Jbeil and especially to the deadly clash on July 26. The commission concluded that what was described as a "division-sized battle" was in reality no more than a "series of limited engagements between IDF forces and Hizbullah fighters on the eastern edge, and to some extent on the western edge of the town." According to the report the failure capture Bint Jbeil became "a symbol of the unsuccessful action of the Israel Defense Forces throughout the fighting."

Hizbullah considered the battle of Bint Jbeil a remarkable victory. The IDF forces participating in the battle were vastly superior, both in terms of numbers and of firepower. According to Israeli estimates the towns were only defended by a company-sized force (100-140 men) and yet Hizbullah fighters succeeded in holding four IDF brigades at bay. Hizbullah commanders later estimated that they were outnumbered 10 or 20 to one in the battles. The IDF often released conflicting estimates of the number of Hizbullah militants killed in the various clashes during the war. No overall estimate was published after the war. A semi-official Israeli study claimed that "dozens" of Hizbullah militants where killed in the battle. The Winograd Commission only claimed that "a large number" were killed. Hizbullah has yet to publish official casualty statistics from the battle or indeed from the war itself. It is clear however that dozens of Hizbullahh fighters died in the battle. Local Hizbullah commanders told Lebanese Daily as-Safir that Bint Jbeil lost 18 fighters while Aynata lost 14 in the battle. Among those killed were several commanders, including Khalid Bazzi, the overall Hizbullah commander of the Bint Jbeil area. A Hizbullah commander told as-Safir that most of the fighters who died in the battle were killed by the shelling while only a "small number" died in the clashes with Israeli troops. Hizbullah usually dominated the battle field "because of the courage of the fighters, their steadfastness and knowledge of the terrain". But the total number of fatalities in the battles in the Bint Jbeil area could well be higher than 32. Hizbullah sent reinforcements to the town during the war, including 40 members of the elite Special Force unit. The unit's commander, Muhammad Qansuh (Sajid ad-Duwayr), from the village of ad-Duwayr was killed in the last day of the war.

The Israeli army's failure in the war in general and especially its inability to conquer Bint Jbeil generated bitterness in Israel. The war had not ended before the recriminations inside the IDF Command started flying. The commander of the 7th Brigade, Col. Amnon Eshel was caught by a TV camera saying that his superior officer Brig. Gen. Gal Hirsh "does not understand what is going on on the battlefield", a statement that probably ended his military career. Hirsch shot back, accusing Eshel of never once entering Lebanon himself, only watching the war from his "plasma screen" in his HQ in Israel.

Former Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon's criticism of the Israeli conduct of the war was scathing, calling it a "catastrophe". Aware of the seriousness of the antitank threat, he says that the IDF should have left the vulnerable tanks at home and stayed away from built-up areas – "no tanks and no houses" – and to operate in a more guerrilla like type of warfare. He was especially critical of the attempted occupation of Bint Jbeil.

Commander of Northern Command Udi Adam was practically dismissed on 8 August 2006 - after his failure to capture Bint Jbeil - when the Chief of Staff Dan Halutz sent his deputy, Moshe Kaplinsky, to serve as a "coordinator" at Northern Command. Adam resigned from the army a month after the war. The Chief of Staff himself resigned from his post in January 2007 and his deputy Kaplinsky retired from the army in late 2007. Gen. Hirsch became the prime target for the widespread frustration in Israel after the war, having direct responsibility both for the abduction affair and the failures at Bint Jbeil and Ayta ash-Sha'b. He was forced to resign a few months after the war.

After his resignation, former Chief of Staff Halutz said that "the most blatant non-achievement or failure" of the war was allowing it to continue for so long. If the initial battles at Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbeil had been more successful the final ground operation could have been avoided. "We could have achieved a lot more if we had been more determined,” he said.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was very disappointed at the army's lack of "results" in Bint Jbeil but did not question the courage of the Israeli soldiers. "If Maroun al-Ras had looked different, if Bint Jbail had looked different, it could be that we would not have reached the point we reached."

The 51st Golani Battalion was left scarred by the traumatic experience in Bint Jbeil. It had suffered 8 dead, including several officers, and 20 wounded. Many of the survivors suffered from shell-shock or post traumatic stress syndrome. Five years later some would still suffer from concentration problems, nightmares and impatience or finding it difficult to cope with their daily lives. Soldiers complained that their mental needs were ignored by their officers. Their battalion commander, Lt.-Col. Asor, was appointed commander on the Egoz unit. He was replaced by an officer from outside the Golani Brigade, who had no understanding for old Golani traditions. When the battalion commander did not show up at a memorial service for the eight Golani dead from the Lebanon war a rebellion broke out. About a hundred soldiers rose up and just walked out of the Tze'elim training base outside Beer Sheva. This was one of the largest "revolts" in the history of the IDF. One of the leaders of the "Golani rebellion" was St.-Sgt. Shiran Amsili, who received a medal for his part in the battle of Bint Jbeil. He was sent to jail for two months for his involvement in the protest. Another 10 soldiers were sent to jail for one or two months and seven other soldiers were confined to their base for a month.