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, 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).
Read more about this topic: Operation Grapes Of Wrath
Famous quotes containing the word operation:
“It is critical vision alone which can mitigate the unimpeded operation of the automatic.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. The only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of the electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and which, under the name of “Wut,” is so infinitely distressing to people of good taste, is laughing immoderately at stated intervals.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)