Central and Western Sectors
The Paratrooper Division began carrying out preparatory tasks on the night of 8–9 August. IDF forces occupied the Christian village of Dibil, situated to the north of Ayta ash-Sha’b (which was surrounded but still unoccupied) in the central sector. An engineering unit hid in a building in the outskirts of the village but was spotted by Hizbullah scouts and was hit by two missiles fired from Ayta ash-Sha’b. Nine soldiers were killed and 31 wounded. None of them had even fired a single bullet.
The Division was ordered to proceed north to the Shiite village of Rashaf, occupy it and open a supply route to the area. The village was eventually occupied but the supply route was not secured. When the cease fire came into effect the Division had advanced about a mile northwards.
Brigadier General Gal Hirsch’s Division 91 was ordered to move west from its positions north of Bint Jbeil towards the Mediterranean coast. "The action proved chaotic" and the operation "fell far short of the mark" by war’s end.
According to the Winograd Commission Division 91 was commissioned with the task of occupying the remaining Hizbullah strongholds near the border, such as Bint Jbeil and Ayta ash-Sha'b. The Report gives no details but notes that both towns remained in Hizbullah hands.
The Alexandroni brigade fought in the western sector. The brigade finally took up position along the coastal road near al-Mansouri after an operation that took eight days rather than the planned 36 hours. The soldiers suffered hard from lack of food and water and dozens collapsed from dehydration and had to be evacuated. The brigade commander Maj, Nati Barak decided not to send his soldiers after Hizbullah fighters hiding in the nearby village. "I have mercy on my soldiers' lives," Barak said. IDF forces managed to advance about one mile north of al-Mansouri by the time the war ended on 14 August.
Read more about this topic: Operation Changing Direction 11
Famous quotes containing the words central and/or western:
“Friends serve central functions for children that parents do not, and they play a critical role in shaping children’s social skills and their sense of identity. . . . The difference between a child with close friendships and a child who wants to make friends but is unable to can be the difference between a child who is happy and a child who is distressed in one large area of life.”
—Zick Rubin (20th century)
“For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible. Our science has always desired to monitor, measure, abstract, and castrate meaning, forgetting that life is full of noise and that death alone is silent: work noise, noise of man, and noise of beast. Noise bought, sold, or prohibited. Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise.”
—Jacques Attali (b. 1943)