[8] The Zrarieh raid took place in the context of operations conducted under the banner of Shimon Peres's Iron Fist policy, announced on 21 February 1985,[9] which aimed to crush growing Shiite resistance to the Israeli occupation.

[11] On that occasion, the IDF crossed their new line on the Zahrani River and raided Zrarieh as well, where they encountered no resistance from the Lebanese Army unit posted there, a passivity which was officially protested by Amal.

[2] On 5 March, a car packed with explosives demolished a Southern Lebanese Shiite mosque in Maarakeh, 8 miles east of Tyre, one day after Israeli troops had withdrawn from a search operation in the village.

The Lebanese army which maintained a unit of two dozen soldiers in Zrarieh at the time,[13] all of them Shiites and were expected by the IDF to put up resistance out of solidarity with the villagers,[8] responded to the cannon-fire, and then withdrew,[14] suffering one dead, and another wounded.

[2] According to the military head of Amal, Akel Hamrye, the attack was launched simultaneously from three directions as troops moved in from positions to the north, south and west of the village.

[8] It also stated that the IDF force had blown up 11 houses where arms had been found,[2] though other sources fix the number of homes demolished at roughly 20;[19] destroyed the police station and had used tanks to drive over and flatten local cars.

[9] Visiting reporters also noted 5-6 bodies on roads near the site, 4 of whom were elderly passengers in civilian cars raked by machine gun and tank fire,[13] apparently killed while trying to flee.

[22] Writing for the Financial Times, David Lennon and Nora Boustany concluded that, "the death toll was clearly intended to tell the Shia that Israel will respond massively to any casualties it suffers.

[16] Le Monde considered the episode a 'bloody reprisal' (revanche sanglante ) for the Metula bombing,[2] as did the historian/journalist Robert Fisk in his history of Lebanon at war, Pity the Nation.

[6] On 4 April, Israeli forces, in a similar 'raking' operation, attacked the village of Kawthariyet el Siyyad and killed another 8 men whom it stated were armed and endeavouring to flee.

The inhabitants showed visiting reporters numerous houses that had been ransacked, rifled of their televisions and other goods, and complained of the theft of life savings by the Israeli soldiers conducting the incursion.

[24] In the Knesset, resisting calls to speed up the withdrawal from Lebanon, Yitzhak Rabin stated that Israel intended dealing with "the stockpile of suicidal Shia maniacs" there.