On Israeli defeat in 33-day Lebanon war

Seven years ago, Hezbollah managed to defeat the Zionist regime's army in a 33-day war that saw the myth of Israeli invincibility torn apart.

The 2006 Lebanon War, known in Lebanon as the July War and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War, was a 33-day Israeli aggression against Lebanon.

The war began on 12 July, when Israel launched waves of air strikes on Lebanon after Hezbollah killed three soldiers and captured two more – later identified as Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev – on the northern border naming it “Operation Sincere Promise”.

The war began when Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport. Later, large parts of the Lebanese civilian infrastructure were destroyed claiming that they wanted to cut off roads on any coming supply for Hezbollah.

The civilian infrastructure included roads, bridges, ports, water and sewage treatment plants, electrical facilities, fuel stations, commercial structures, schools and hospitals, and homes.

During the war, Israel’s Air Force flew more than 12,000 combat missions, its Navy fired 2,500 shells, and its Army fired over 100,000 shells. Israeli shells didn’t spare innocent people and children whom their flesh and blood were shed with daily massacres everywhere across Lebanon.

Hezbollah in retaliation fired rockets on Israeli military bases and Hezbollah forces engaged in guerrilla warfare with the Israeli forces, attacking from well-fortified positions.

These attacks by small, well-armed units caused serious problems to the Israeli military, especially through the use of hundreds of sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles.

Hezbollah destroyed 38 Israeli Merkava and damaged 82. The Merkava is an object of pride for the Israeli industry. Hezbollah also destroyed Israeli warship Sa’er off the Lebanese coast.

Marking the historical victory, Hezbollah's Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on July 20, 2013 that the resistance movement’s numerous victories against Israel ended the era of Tel Aviv’s imposing its will on the Lebanese people.

Nasrallah said that that Hezbollah “is capable of overcoming all the difficulties, as the enemy is reviewing all its plans and calculations after what happened in the last couple of months.”

The war was a moral boost for the Palestinian resistance as it witnessed a humiliating defeat on the part of the israeloi enemy.

It also helped defeat the so-called 'New Middle East' plan devised by the US to consolidate the Israeli position in the region and wrap up the Palestinian issue in its favor.