Editing 1982 Lebanon War (section)

====1981 events and cease-fire====
In his report for the period of 12 December 1980 to 12 June 1981 on UNIFIL activities, the Security Council Secretary General noted that infiltrations into the border zone by Palestinian armed forces had decreased relative to the previous six months.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/documents/|title=United Nations Security Council document S/14537|work=UN.org|access-date=1 May 2017}}</ref> Indeed, the PLO had recognized their vulnerable position, and avoided overtly provoking Israel.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Middle East after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon |date=1986 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-2388-5 |editor-last=Freedman |editor-first=Robert Owen |edition=1st |series=Contemporary issues in the Middle East |location=Syracuse, N.Y |pages=235–236}}</ref> In contrast the IDF had launched various attacks on Lebanese territory often in support of the Lebanese Christian militia. In doing so Israel had violated UN Security Council resolution 425 on hundreds of occasions [paragraph 58]. Where the initiator(s) of attacks could be identified in the report, in 15 cases Palestinian militants were to blame while on 23 occasions the Militia and/or the IDF were the instigators, the latter also being responsible for the most violent confrontation of the period on 27 April [paragraph 52].

From 16 June to 10 December 1981,<ref name="UN1981">{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/documents/|title=United Nations Security Council document S/14789|work=UN.org|access-date=1 May 2017}}</ref> a relative quiet was reported continuing from 29 May 1981 until 10 July. This was broken when "Israeli aircraft resumed strikes against targets in southern Lebanon north of the UNIFIL area. (The Israeli strikes) led to exchanges of heavy firing between armed elements (Palestinians), on the one hand, and IDF and the de facto forces (Christian Militia) on the other. On 13 and 14 July, widespread Israeli air-strikes continued. Armed elements (Palestinians) fired into the enclave and northern Israel." Israeli-initiated attacks had led to rocket and artillery fire on northern Israel. This pattern continued in the coming days.

Israel renewed its air strikes in an attempt to trigger a war that would allow it to drive out the PLO and restore peace to the region.<ref name=schiff>[[#refSchiff1984|Schiff & Ya'ari, pp.&nbsp;35–36]]</ref> On 17 July, the Israel Air Force launched a massive attack on PLO buildings in downtown Beirut. "Perhaps as many as three hundred died, and eight hundred were wounded, the great majority of them civilians."<ref name="Benny Morris p507">[[#refMorris1999|Morris, p. 507]]</ref> The Israeli army also heavily targeted PLO positions in south Lebanon without success in suppressing Palestinian rocket launchers and guns.<ref name="The Israeli Air Force">{{cite web|url=http://www.iaf.org.il/2557-30092-en/IAF.aspx|title=The Israeli Air Force|work=IAF.org.il|access-date=1 May 2017}}</ref>

As a result, thousands of Israeli citizens who lived near the Lebanese border headed south. There patterns of Israeli-initiated airstrikes and Palestinian retaliations with attacks on northern Israel are in contrast with the official Israeli version "A ceasefire declared in July 1981 was broken: the terrorists continued to carry out attacks against Israeli targets in Israel and abroad, and the threat to the northern settlements became unbearable."<ref name="The Israeli Air Force"/>

On 24 July 1981, United States Undersecretary of State Philip Habib brokered a ceasefire badly needed by both parties,<ref name=UN1981 /> the best achievable result from negotiations via intermediaries, aimed at complying with the decisions of UN Security Council resolution 490. The process was complicated, requiring
<blockquote>shuttle diplomacy between Damascus, Jerusalem, and Beirut, United States. Philip Habib concluded a ceasefire across the Lebanon border between Israel and the PLO. Habib could not talk to the PLO directly because of Kissinger's directive, so he used a Saudi member of the royal family as mediator. The agreement was oral – nothing could be written down since Israel and the PLO did not recognize each other and refused to negotiate with each other – but they came up with a truce. ... Thus the border between Lebanon and Israel suddenly stabilized after over a decade of routine bombing.<ref>Kameel B. Nazr (2007) ''Arab and Israeli Terrorism: The Causes and Effects of Political Violence''. McFarland & Company. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-3105-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=QRXURzwdXS4C]</ref></blockquote>

Between July 1981 and June 1982, as a result of the Habib ceasefire, the Lebanese-Israeli border "enjoyed a state of calm unprecedented since 1968."<ref name="Morris2"/> But the 'calm' was tense. US Secretary of State, [[Alexander Haig]] filed a report with US President [[Ronald Reagan]] on Saturday 30 January 1982 that revealed Secretary Haig's fear that Israel might, at the slightest provocation, start a war against Lebanon.<ref>[[#refReagan2007|Reagan, p.&nbsp;66]]</ref>

The 'calm' lasted nine months. Then, on 21 April 1982, after a landmine killed an Israeli officer while he was visiting a South Lebanese Army gun emplacement in [[Taybeh (Marjaayoun)|Taibe]], Lebanon, the Israeli Air Force attacked the Palestinian-controlled coastal town of [[Damour]], killing 23 people.<ref>[[#reffisk2001|Fisk, p.&nbsp;194]]</ref> Fisk reports further on this incident: "The Israelis did not say what the soldier was doing ... I discovered that he was visiting one of Haddad's artillery positions (Christian militia) and that the mine could have been lain &#91;sic&#93; as long ago as 1978, perhaps even by the Israelis themselves".

On 9 May 1982, Israeli aircraft again attacked targets in Lebanon. Later that same day, UNIFIL observed the firing of rockets from Palestinian positions in the [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] region into northern Israel, but none of the projectiles hit Israeli towns<ref>Friedman, Thomas L. "Israeli Jets Raid P.L.O. in Lebanon; Shelling follows". ''The New York Times'', 10 May 1982, p. 1.</ref> – the gunners had been ordered to miss.<ref name="Benny Morris p507"/> Major-General Erskine (Ghana), Chief of Staff of UNTSO reported to the [[United Nations Secretary-General|Secretary-General]] and the [[Security Council]] (S/14789, S/15194) that from August 1981 to May 1982, inclusive, there were 2096 violations of Lebanese airspace and 652 violations of Lebanese territorial waters.<ref>[[#refCobban1984|Cobban, p.&nbsp;112]]</ref><ref name="UN15194">[http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/687deff0fe05590a85257019006e4036!OpenDocument UN Doc S/15194] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202004040/http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/687deff0fe05590a85257019006e4036%21OpenDocument |date=2 December 2008 }} of 10 June 1982 ''Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon''</ref> The freedom of movement of UNIFIL personnel and UNTSO observers within the enclave remained restricted due to the actions of [[Amal Movement|Amal]] and the [[South Lebanon Army]] under Major [[Saad Haddad]]'s leadership with the backing of Israeli military forces.<ref name="UN15194"/>

Prior to establishing ceasefire in July 1981, U.N. Secretary-General [[Kurt Waldheim]] noted: "After several weeks of relative quiet in the area, a new cycle of violence has begun and has, in the past week, steadily intensified." He further stated: "There have been heavy civilian casualties in Lebanon; there have been civilian casualties in Israel as well. I deeply deplore the extensive human suffering caused by these developments." The President of the [[United Nations Security Council|U.N. Security Council]], [[Ide Oumarou]] of [[Niger]], expressed "deep concern at the extent of the loss of life and the scale of the destruction caused by the deplorable events that have been taking place for several days in Lebanon".<ref>[http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/43220e2368a3ddf7052568000052412c?OpenDocument UN Doc S/PV.2292] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060312224248/http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/43220e2368a3ddf7052568000052412c?OpenDocument |date=12 March 2006 }}, 17 July 1981.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/feb2002/sab-f22.shtml |title=Sharon's war crimes in Lebanon: the record |publisher=Wsws.org |date=22 February 2002 |access-date=29 February 2012}}</ref>