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On this day in 1996, israel launched a 16 day campaign of slaughter on southern Lebanon that subjected the region to mass killing, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing. The enemy called this campaign “operation grapes of wrath.”
Across the South, from villages to agricultural lands, civilian life was systematically dismantled. Homes, roads, power infrastructure, and water sources were bombed. Over 400,000 Lebanese, largely from the Shia population of south Lebanon, were forcibly displaced within days. Entire communities were emptied under fire.
At the center of this campaign was the Qana massacre. israel shelled a UN compound sheltering civilians, killing more than 100 people, the majority women, children, and elderly. Many of the martyrs were recovered dismembered and unrecognizable due to the intensity of the bombardment. Infants were found with missing heads.
In the Mansouri massacre, ambulances evacuating wounded civilians were directly targeted and struck. Those inside, including the injured and those assisting them, were killed or wounded. Rescue efforts themselves became targets, as they continue to be today.
Tens of other massacres targeting civilian convoys, homes, and shelters were carried out across south Lebanon during this period, producing repeated mass casualties, with bodies fragmented and disintegrated by shelling and civilians killed while attempting to flee.
The role of UNIFIL was also exposed. Investigations concluded that its positions were compromised, with israeli forces maintaining surveillance and targeting of areas under UN protection, leaving civilians who sought refuge there vulnerable.
This ethnic cleansing constituted collective punishment driving civilians from their land through sustained violence to further the israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and deter resistance after years of ongoing occupation since 1982.
