Background: Israel's history of wars in Lebanon

Chronology of Israel's history of wars and occupation in neighbouring Lebanon:


1978 - Israel launches Lebanon offensive against Palestine Liberation Organisation after militants kill 37 civilians in Israel. Most troops withdraw within weeks, but Israel leaves Lebanese Christian allies in charge of border strip.

1982 - Israeli troops again invade Lebanon and reach Beirut. During the war, Christian Lebanese troops enter Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila, which had been guarded by Israeli troops, and massacre hundreds of civilians.

1985 - Israel pulls back bulk of 1982 invasion force, leaving behind about 1000 soldiers to patrol a self-declared "security zone" to prevent cross-border guerrilla attacks.

1993 - In response to rocket attacks by Iranian-backed Hizbollah guerrillas, Israel unleashes "Operation Accountability", a week-long air, artillery and naval blitz in which 130 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, die.

1996 - Israel launches 17-day blitz, "Operation Grapes of Wrath", that kills more than 200 Lebanese in retaliation for Hizbollah shelling of northern Israeli towns.

2000 - Israel completes pullout from south Lebanon in July. In October, Hizbollah kills three soldiers at the border and takes the bodies back to Lebanon. Israel later trades Arab prisoners for the bodies and a kidnapped businessman.

July 12, 2006 - Hizbollah guerrillas seize two Israeli soldiers in a raid and kill seven soldiers in the heaviest fighting at the border since the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. Israel calls it an "act of war".

July 13 - Israeli aircraft attack Beirut airport and kill more than 20 civilians in attacks on southern Lebanon. Hizbollah fires dozens of rockets into northern Israeli town of Nahariya, killing at least one Israeli civilian.

- REUTERS