Yearbook 1996
Lebanon. After several weeks of escalated fighting between Israeli soldiers and the Shiite militia Hizbullah around the Israeli-occupied zone in southern Lebanon. Hizbullah fired rockets at the Israeli border town of Qiryat Shemona on April 9. The next day, an Israeli soldier was killed in the occupation zone. On April 11, Israel launched its largest offensive in L. since 1993, “Operation Grapes of Wrath.” Israeli aircraft attacked all the way up to Beirut’s southern outskirts. Half a million civilians fled, but Hizbullah was not prevented from continuing the shooting of northern Israel during the offensive.
The reaction of the Western world was quite restrained, until Israeli artillery on April 18 fired a UN post in Kana and killed 110 civilian Lebanese seeking protection. On the same day, a house in Nabatiyeh city was shot and eleven civilians were killed. According to Israel, the house was owned by a Hizbullah member. Following the attack on Kana, the United States, France, the Russian Federation and the EU intervened to stop the fighting. Armistice began on April 27. In principle, it was based on the fact that in the future fighting would be limited to the occupation zone and that civilians would not be attacked. A commission consisting of representatives from the United States, France, Israel, Syria and Lebanon was appointed to monitor the ceasefire. A UN investigation into the attack against Kana later found it “unlikely” that the shooting of civilians could have been made by mistake or due to technical problems.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG: What does LE stand for? In the field of geography, this two letter acronym means Lebanon. Check this to see its other meanings in English and other 35 languages.
In June, Hizbullah killed five Israeli soldiers in the occupation zone. Three civilians were wounded and one Lebanese soldier was killed in the immediately following Israeli shooting into Lebanon. A majority of the five-nation commission felt that Israel was thus violating the ceasefire agreement.
In the August parliamentary elections, the Syrian-backed Syrian-backed circle won over Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The election was conducted according to a controversial new electoral law, which divided the country in a way that was considered to guarantee re-election by the Drusean leader Walid Jumblatt. The Supreme Court rejected the law, but it was nevertheless adopted by Parliament after deciding that it would apply only this time.
On July 28, the United Nations asked for a 3-day ceasefire to distribute relief in Lebanon and evacuate civilians from the Israeli free-fire zones in the south. It was sharply rejected the next day by the Israeli government. Its spokesman Avi Pazner stated: “There is no need for a ceasefire. Israel has already opened a humanitarian corridor ยป. However, this was contradicted by both MSF and the International Red Cross, which throughout the war and had their convoys fired by Israeli artillery and air force. Although the humanitarian organizations made agreements with the Israeli military, these agreements are immediately broken. Later, the Israeli foreign minister came up with another reason for the Israeli rejection: “Hezbollah just wants to use the ceasefire to bring in civilians they can use as shields.” This statement, in contrast, contradicted the Israeli Justice Minister’s July 26 statement that Israel regarded all members of southern Lebanon as members of Hezbollah – and therefore defamed them. This opinion was in line with Israeli practice. Israel killed another 16 civilians in July 29 attacks. Including a mother and her 5 children. At the same time, it bombed the Lebanon-Syria border to prevent relief from entering Lebanon and refugees from exiting. Israel ignored international calls – including UN humanitarian calls – because the country had carte blance from the United States to continue the war regardless of civilian casualties.
Following the adoption of the Security Council Resolution on August 11 and the adoption of August 14 at 1 p.m. At 5:00 GMT as the time for the cessation of the fighting, Kofi Annan urged the parties to immediately stop the fighting or at least reduce the scale. In vain. Israel responded to the resolution by sending 30,000 soldiers into Lebanon four hours later, escalating the attacks and bombings.
Population 1996
According to Countryaah.com, the population of Lebanon in 1996 was 3,528,269, ranking number 125 in the world. The population growth rate was 4.710% yearly, and the population density was 344.9052 people per km2.
