It Didn't Start in 1982: The Five Worst Massacres Terrorists From South Lebanon Committed In Israel Before the Invasion
Hezbollah claims it was created as a response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, implying that prior to the invasion, Lebanon was a peaceful neighbor.
This leads people to imagine Israel decided to cross the border and “steal” Lebanese land out of the blue, though one wonders towards what purpose, since no Israeli settlements were created in Lebanon, nor was the population deliberately displaced.
Did Israel start a major war just for fun?
The reality of the matter is that Israel never attacked a country that didn’t attack it first or supported attacks against it, and Lebanon is no different. Just like Israel’s current invasion of Lebanon, the 1982 invasion of Lebanon was a defensive response to annihilaionist aggression against the Jewish state.
Before 1982, hundreds of attacks were launched against Israel from South Lebanon, mostly by Palestinian militants who were expelled there from Jordan in 1971. One wonders why they didn’t attack Jordan just as hard for expelling them, but that’s a subject for a different story.
These attacks have killed hundreds of Israelis and injured over a thousand between 1970 and 1982, the vast majority of them civilians and many of them children. Often, attackers from Lebanon went out of their way to target Israeli children. In some cases, they literally snatched babies from their cribs.
In many ways, their level of sadism was a precursor to the atrocities of October 7. In fact, until October 7, one of these attacks was the bloodiest in Israeli history.
Below are five of the most infamous attacks launched from Lebanon against Israeli civilians before 1982.
Shove them in the face of anyone who tries to gaslight you by claiming the only reason Hezbollah exists is to “resist” Israel.
A soldier carrying his wounded sister from the Ma’alot massacre.
Avivim School Bus Massacre (1970)
Palestinian militants from the Marxist PFLP-GC movement armed with rifles and RPGs crossed into Israel from Lebanon and opened fired on a school bus near the Lebanese border.
The terrorists then fled the scene, leaving behind them dozens of dead or dying children.
18 Israelis were killed, including 9 children, and 25 were wounded.
Palestinian terrorists from the Marxist DFLP movement infiltrated from Lebanon. They attacked a van, killing two Arab-Israeli women and entered an apartment building in the town of Ma’alot, where they killed a couple and their four-year-old son.
From there, they headed for the Netiv Meir Elementary School in Ma’alot, and took hostage 115 people including 105 children and demanded the release of 26 terrorists from Israeli prisons or else they would kill the children.
During the rescue operation, which defense minsiter Moshe Dayan personally oversaw, the terrorists murdered 22 children and injured 68 more.
One soldier was killed in the fighting.
31 Israelis were murdered and 70 were injured in the attack. Most of them children.
Kiryat Shmona Massacre (1974)
Palestinian terrorists from the PFLP-GC movement (notice how many of these massacres were committed by Communists) crossed from Lebanon into the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona and went door-to-door through apartment buildings, shooting residents and throwing children from the top floors.
They were later when the backpack of one of them exploded during a gunfight with the IDF.
18 Israelis were killed, including 8 children, and 16 were wounded.
The Coastal Road Massacre (1978)
Palestinian militants from Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement sailed from Lebanon and landed on a beach near the kibbutz Ma’agan Michael and murdered American photographer Gail Rubin who was the niece of US Senator Abraham Ribicoff.
From the beach, they walked to the highway and hijacked a taxi after murdering its occupants. Next, they hijacked a bus and murdered its occupants as well as firing into a passing car, murdering a teenager and injuring his father.
Time characterized it at the time as “the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history.” Until the Nova music festival massacre, this was the deadliest terrorist attack in Israeli history.
38 Israelis, including 13 children, were murdered and 76 were injured in the attack.
The remains of the hijacked bus after the massacre
Misgav Am hostage crisis (1980)
Palestinian terrorists from the Arab Liberation Front infiltered the kibbutz of Misgav Am. They murdered Sammy Shani before entering the children’s sleeping quarters and murdering two-year-old Eyal Gluska. They then snatched two babies from their cribs and ran up to the second floor, where they barricaded themselves with five more toddlers and an adult the took hostage.
Luckily, the rescue operation mounted by the IDF was successful. One Israeli soldier was killed but there were no more civilian casulties.
3 Israelis were killed, including 1 toddler, and 25 were wounded.
All these attacks, as well as hundreds others, happened against the backdrop of repeated Katyusha bombardments of Israeli towns throughout the 70s and 80s.
So no, Israel didn’t invade Lebanon in 1982 for the sport of it.
Israel invaded it to stop a decade of atrocities and mass murder which the Lebanese state at best turned a blind eye on and at worst actively supported.
The only thing Lebanon had to do to avoid this invasion was simply not let terrorists use its territory to invade Israel and kidnap babies from the crib and bask in the blood of children.
It was true in 1978, it was true in 1982, and it’s true today.
gummygunk
janainaart
theartofmadeline
pixelskylines
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
tangentwithtanner
