Hezbollah Enters Lebanon The Victory and Sovereignty Era: No More Steps Back!

By Mohammad Youssef

Every year, on the 6th of June, Lebanon and the Lebanese remember a very important event; the 1982 'Israeli' invasion of Lebanon.

This invasion led to the occupation of many parts of the country reaching the capital Beirut, which came under tough siege and heavy bombardment by the 'Israeli' occupation forces who managed to occupy it after months of siege but have never been able to control it and were forced to flee under the strikes of the resistance at the time.

Ariel Sharon, who has become later the 'Israeli' prime minister, was the butcher of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre and the leader of the invading 'Israeli' forces that entered later the presidential palace in Baabda and took pictures there.
 
The announced  goal of the invasion, dubbed “Operation Galilee”, was to destroy the Palestinian military capabilities and to ward off the threat of the Palestinian shelling away from the Lebanese-Palestinian border. As time passed, the real aim of the 'Israeli' invasion and occupation started to surface.

After occupying Palestine, the Zionist regime wanted to annex Lebanon as a whole into its western-backed colonialist expansionist scheme.

The 'Israeli' leadership planned and succeeded to impose a so-called 'peace treaty' on Lebanon which was indeed a kind of complete surrender for the Arab country. The treaty would definitely compromise Lebanon's sovereignty and would also violate its basic rights as an independent state. It would also threaten its very existence on the long run. 

Lebanon was once and for a long time called the weakest ring, the country whose official policy and philosophy was Lebanon’s strength is in its weaknesses, and the country which the 'Israelis' paid the least attention to as a threat to their plans and made series of jokes mocking its fragility and weakness. This very country, Lebanon, has turned to be the worst  nightmare to the 'Israelis,' thanks to the resistance!

The resistance, which at the time belonged to many Lebanese groups, has engaged in battling the 'Israeli' occupation forces in different parts of the country starting from Beirut. But as the time passed, one group of resistance fighters, which came to be known later as the Islamic Resistance or Hezbollah, spearheaded this action of resistance and thus has become its backbone.  

Scores of operations were carried out by Hezbollah against the 'Israeli'  occupation, including the self-sacrifice operations against its forces inside the occupied Lebanese territories.

One of the most successful self-sacrifice operations, which was a landmark and represented a turning point, took place in Tyre in 1982. The operation targeted the headquarter of the 'Israeli' occupation governor in Lebanon, the building was completely destroyed and turned into rubbles. 85 'Israeli' occupation soldiers and officers were killed. It was, and continues to be the strongest and most important self-sacfirice operation against the 'Israeli' enemy in Lebanon's history.

Ahmad Qasir, the name of Hezbollah's martyr who carried out the heroic historical operation, was immortalized as the opener of the self-sacrifice operations era within Hezbollah ranks.

The operation dealt the 'Israeli' enemy a devastating blow, and portended the beginning of the end of this occupation.

In parallel, the occupied territories in South Lebanon and West Bekaa witnessed continuous and intensified military operations against the 'Israeli' occupation forces.

The enemy was in continuous need to change its tactics because a serious, devoted, and well-trained and organized resistance was there to target its occupying forces.

Before the liberation of most of the occupied Lebanese territories in 2000; two very important wars took place. The first aggression took place in July 1993, which the 'Israeli' enemy called "Operation  Accountability." The second was carried out in April 1996, the enemy called “Grapes of Wrath” war.

Both wars were very destructive. The second one was tragic and witnessed many 'Israeli' massacres. The most notorious of them was the Qana Massacre during which around 110 Lebanese people, mostly children, women, and elderly were martyred when the 'Israeli' occupation forces targeted them after they took shelter for safety in one of the United Nations [UN] forces centers in the Qana village.

Aside from the savage 'Israeli' brutalities, both wars added up to the strength of the resistance, especially the second one.

The resistance accomplished a huge military victory along with a great political success when Lebanon reached an agreement called the "April Understanding." This understanding cemented the right of the resistance to target any 'Israeli' force and granted Hezbollah a sort of international legitimacy.

The resistance-led long military confrontation scored a historical achievement represented by the great liberation of Lebanon in 2000. The 'Israeli' occupation regime was forced to withdraw its troops in a humiliating defeat from most of the Lebanese territories with the exception of the Shebaa Frms and the Kfarchouba Hills.

Since then, such achievement has ushered in a new era in Lebanon which has unique title; victory and sovereignty...