Military operations of the 2006 Lebanon War
[7] Hezbollah has reportedly obtained large numbers of Russian-made RPG-29 antitank weapons via Syria which are capable of penetrating the armor on Israeli tanks.
[9][10] As part of the Hezbollah rocket campaign that began in July, they fired rockets into all major cities of northern Israel including Haifa, Hadera, Nazareth, Nazareth Illit, Tiberias, Nahariya, Safed, Afula,[11] Kiryat Shmona, Beit She'an, Karmiel, and Maalot, and dozens of kibbutzim, moshavim, and Druze and Arab villages, as well as the northern West Bank.
[20] Peretz told commanders to prepare civil defense plans and many of the nearly 1,000,000 civilians living in Northern Israel have been sent to bomb shelters or fled their homes to other parts of the country.
[30][31] CNN reported that many of the rockets that missed hitting cities or populated areas often caused forest fires inside Northern Israel.
[citation needed] By July 23, Israeli Magen David Adom emergency teams have been called to 505 rocket landing sites in which they have treated and evacuated 976 casualties (36 fatalities, 19 severely, 39 moderately and 278 lightly injured, and 604 anxiety attacks).
[32] On 25 July Nasrallah announced the beginning of the "second phase of our struggle" in which Hezbollah long-range rockets would "go beyond Haifa," Israel's third-largest city.
[33] The threat has not been carried out to date, but on 26 July 2006, 60 Iranian volunteers and Basijis set off to join in what they termed a holy war against Israel in Lebanon.
On 1 August five unidentified rockets and a number of mortar shells were fired at the western Galilee between Rosh Hanikra and Ma'alot on Tuesday wounding five IDF.
[47] Iranian News Agency FARS reported a total of 300 rocket attacks striking fifteen areas inside Israel.
[48] On 3 August Hassan Nasrallah vowed to strike Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israel's bombardment of Lebanon's capital, Beirut.
[50] On the same day, Hezbollah managed to fire rockets who reached Hadera and Pardes Hana - passing the barrier of the Carmel Mountains, and threatening Tel Aviv more than ever before.
Mohammed Fneish, a Hezbollah Cabinet minister, said the guerrillas will continue fighting as long as Israeli troops remain in Lebanon.
"[52] On 6 August, a rocket, filled with ball bearings, killed 12 Israeli reservist soldiers in Kfar Giladi, near the Lebanese border.
[54] On 7 August the Israeli Air Force shot down over the Mediterranean Sea an Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launched from Lebanon, apparently by Hezbollah.
The international highway between Beirut and Damascus, and bridges, roads, airports, and factories have been bombed several times by the Israeli Air Force.
[a] Merkava tank drove over a powerful bomb, containing an estimated 200 to 300 kilograms (440–660 Lb) of explosives, about 70 meters (230 feet) north of the border fence.
"[66]According to the Washington Post: But retired Israeli army Col. Gal Luft, a former commander in the town of Ramallah, said, "Israel is attempting to create a rift between the Lebanese population and Hezbollah supporters by exacting a heavy price from the elite in Beirut.
"[67] Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the attack by Hezbollah's military wing an "act of war", and promised Lebanon a "very painful and far-reaching response.
"[69] Israel said it held the Beirut government responsible for the attack, but Prime Minister Fuad Siniora denied any knowledge of the raid and stated that he did not condone it.
[71] The Israeli government also began a public relations initiative in the press and the internet to promote and explain its actions in Lebanon, a practice known as hasbara.
"[73] Early on 13 July 2006 Israel sent IDF jets to bomb Lebanon's international airport near Beirut, forcing its closure and diverting its arriving flights to Cyprus.
[81] On 23 July 2006, Israeli land forces crossed into Lebanon in the Maroun al-Ras area, which overlooks several other sites said to have been used as launch pads for Hezbollah rockets.
[82] It was reported on 24 July that the United States was in the process of providing Israel with "bunker buster" bombs, which would allegedly be used to target the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group and destroy its trenches.
[83] On 25 July Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary general, said the Israeli onslaught was an attempt by the US and Israel to "impose a new Middle East" in which Lebanon would be under US hegemony.
[87][88][89] In addition spokespersons from the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and an assortment of human rights organizations have condemned Israel for its "disproportionate" response to Hezbollah's attacks.
HRW says that according to their observations and reports from independent new source, none of the attacks on vehicles resulted in Hezbollah killings or the hindrance in the transportation of weapons.
[91] The Lebanese environment minister has said that a strike on a power station in Lebanon, and the resultant oil leak have had bad effects and "It's without doubt the biggest environmental catastrophe that the Mediterranean has known.
[93] In the August 2006 edition of The New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claimed that Israeli government officials travelled to the US in May to share plans for attacking Hizbullah.
[94] Quoting a US government consultant, Hersh said: "Earlier this summer ... several Israeli officials visited Washington, separately, 'to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear'."
[citation needed] Haaretz reported in March 2007 that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert testified to the Winograd Commission that several meetings regarding Hezbollah were held upon his taking office, and that in response to the likely scenario of soldiers again being abducted, he chose one of several plans of action instead of having to make a snap-judgement if and when such a scenario occurred.
