Israel Withdraws from Lebanon: Sovereignty Restored After 22 Years

After 22 years, the last Israeli soldier crossed the border heading south, and Lebanon's sovereignty over its southern territory was restored without a peace agreement, without a ceremony, and without any guarantee it would last. On May 24, 2000, the Israel Defense Forces completed their withdrawal from southern Lebanon, ending an occupation that had begun with Operation Litani in 1978 and expanded dramatically with the 1982 invasion. Israel had entered Lebanon to destroy the Palestine Liberation Organization's infrastructure and create a security buffer zone along its northern border. The 1982 invasion reached Beirut, but the occupation quickly became a quagmire. Hezbollah, formed in 1982 with Iranian support, waged a guerrilla campaign that inflicted a steady toll of Israeli casualties throughout the 1990s. Israeli public opinion turned against the occupation after years of soldiers coming home in coffins from a war with no clear exit strategy. The Four Mothers movement, founded by bereaved families, lobbied intensely for withdrawal. Prime Minister Ehud Barak had campaigned on a pledge to leave Lebanon within a year of taking office, and he delivered. The withdrawal happened faster than planned. Israel's proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army, collapsed as IDF positions were vacated. SLA fighters and their families fled across the border into Israel. Lebanese civilians streamed into the abandoned security zone, and Hezbollah fighters planted their flag on the border fence. Hezbollah declared victory and used the withdrawal as proof that armed resistance could succeed where diplomacy had failed. The organization's prestige soared across the Arab world. Six years later, a Hezbollah cross-border raid triggered the 2006 Lebanon War, demonstrating that Israel's departure had not resolved the underlying conflict but merely relocated it.