This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Inconclusive Unit 621 "Egoz"Unit 212 "Maglan" 35th Paratroopers Brigade Military engagements and attacks Evacuations Response Related topics The Battle of Maroun al-Ras was a battle of the 2006 Lebanon War that took place in Maroun al-Ras, a small village in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel, and Jall ad-Dayr, a nearby Hezbollah stronghold.

According to Gal Hirsch, commander of the 91st Division, a unit of 18 soldiers from the elite Maglan special reconnaissance were sent out to occupy a Hezbollah position on mount Jall ad-Dayr (before 2000 the place of the IDF outpost Shaked), from which the nearby IDF base of Avivim had been shelled, as well as the small nearby village of Maroun al-Ras.

According to the IDF General Command however, the Maglan unit was on a reconnaissance mission and under strict orders to avoid Hezbollah strongholds or Shiite villages.

[5] After a steep climb up the hill on July 19, the 18-man squad from the Maglan special reconnaissance unit finally reached the summit next to the village.

[8] "Nature Reserves" became IDF soldiers' slang during the war for well-fortified Hezbollah strongholds, situated outside built-up areas in Southern Lebanon.

[10] The IDF paratroopers' Recon Company was quickly sent as reinforcements to Maroun al-Ras to help evacuate the entangled Maglan unit.

The paratroopers suppressed the village, helping the tanks to evacuate, and sent a team of 6 to enter a house to secure the parameter from above.

[citation needed] On the same morning of July 20, the commander of the elite Egoz Reconnaissance Unit, Lieutenant Colonel Mordechai Kahana, was summoned to his brigade officer and was ordered to help extricate the supposedly trapped paratroopers.

[11] By the end of the day "thousands" of Israeli soldiers were operating in South Lebanon, apparently mainly in and around Maroun al-Ras.

[12] An Egoz company attacked a suspicious vehicle, apparently transporting wounded Hezbollah fighters that were injured during the battle with Paratrooper Reconnaissance, to the nearby town of Bint Jbeil.

Crooke and Perry also deny this claim, writing that Abu Jaafar made public comments after the end of the war.

[18] However the village commander of the Amal Movement, Hani Alawiya (Abu Ali), was killed in the clashes in Maroun al-Ras on July 20.

[19] Khalid Bazzi, the commander of the Hezbollah forces in the Bint Jbeil area personally took part in the battle of Maroun al-Ras.

[24] There are no clear indications that the IDF actually took control over the Jall ad-Dayr ("Shaked") Nature Reserve or whether rockets were continued to be fired from this position.

[25] Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff's account of the war confirmed that the Maglan soldiers killed five Hezbollah fighters in the encounter but did not mention the destruction of the reserve.

However, the fact that soldiers were ordered not to risk themselves to recover enemy bodies made counting the toll more difficult.

Adam was under heavy pressure to present a "victory" and demanded proof in the form of pictures of the dead Hezbollah fighters.

[26] These six bodies, out of a total of about ten during the entire war (the remainder apparently from the fighting around Bint Jbeil) were later returned to Lebanon in the prisoner exchanges in 2007 and 2008.

On August 9 Israel launched Operation Change of Direction 11, which aimed at occupying South Lebanon up to the Litani river.

At Maroun al-Ras, the IDF experienced for the first time sustained Hezbollah attacks with anti-tank rockets and guided missiles and especially the deadly effect of the "swarming" technique.

"[6] IDF Northern Command banned the introduction of vehicles to Lebanon, with exception of tanks and heavy APCs, such as the Achzarit.

The battle at Maroun al-Ras, however, showed that not even these heavy armored vehicles were invulnerable to Hezbollah missiles.

The decision not to attack these positions, sometimes only hundreds of meters from the Israeli border, made it possible for Hezbollah to continue firing rockets over Northern Israel throughout the war.

"[30] A report on the war written by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee sharply criticized the decision not to attack Nature Reserves and claimed that it "played into Hezbollah's hands".

General Udi Adam claimed that Hezbollah's death toll was in fact higher, but could not be fully counted because he had ordered his soldiers not to risk their lives to recover enemy dead.