September 4, 1997: Israel's Shayetet 13, a special operations unit, was ambushed by Hezbollah in Lebanon, losing 12 @IDF soldiers. It was the worst single-day casualty toll for Israel in Lebanon since 1985.
1/ On Aug 3, 1997, a unit from Israel's Golani Brigade was taken by helicopter near Nabatiya in Lebanon. They went to the village of Kfour and planted explosives in a wall outside the house of Hussein Qassir, an Islamic Resistance Commander.
2/ As they were leaving, they were detected, and fired at, but they escaped. In the morning, patrols searched the village for roadside bombs, and when a group of Lebanese fighters passed the wall, the bombs were detonated. Qassir and 4 other combatants were killed.
3/ A month later, the Islamic Resistance learned that Israel was planning another attack. They decided to set up an ambush of the IDF troops who arrived.
4/ On Sept 4, 1997, 16 @IDF soldiers arrived from Shayetet 13 by boat. They walked ashore on an uninhabited part of a beach in Lebanon.
5/ The unit crossed the coastal road and walked through the plantations until it reached an orchard, covered by a wall. When the unit tried to open an iron gate two Claymore type anti-personal explosives, spraying metal marbles, were exploded in quick succession.
6/ At the same time the Lebanese fighters opened fire on the Israelis, triggering the explosives carried by one of the soldiers. In minutes, 11 of the Israelis, including the commander, were dead and 4 of them wounded. Only the radioman escaped unhurt and radioed for help.
7/ Israeli helicopters quickly opened fire with antitank missiles and 20 mm chain guns, creating a perimeter of fire for the rescue helicopters. The Islamic Resistance fighters decided to pull back after two of them were wounded.
8/ More than 4 hours after the fighting began the last Israeli helicopter took off with its cargo of wounded and dead soldiers. Despite frantic searches, one of the soldiers remained missing. It was Itamar Ilya, who was blown literally to pieces.
9/ The catastrophe at Ansariya created a lot of unease in Israel. A total of 5 officers and 7 other soldiers were killed in the clash. It was the worst single-day casualty toll in Lebanon since the Israeli withdrawal to the security zone in 1985.
10/ Shayetet 13 had for a long time avoided casualties. It would take the unit two years to recuperate from this blow. @IsraeliPM@netanyahu called it "one of the worst tragedies that has ever occurred to us".
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1/ Today marks 1 year since I began this Twitter feed, and this marks my last formal tweet in the year of learning all about Israeli and Zionist history. I've certainly learned a lot through this endeavour, and hope everyone who has been following along has learned something too.
2/ Given the oversized role that Israel and its history plays in the geopolitical dialogue today, it has always been my belief that the world is better served knowing more about the intricacies of Israeli history.
3/ Over the last year, through this feed, I've tried to highlight as much as I can about Israeli/Zionist history and culture, making moments in military and general history, music, art, early Zionism, etc. It has been an incredibly journey, and I've only scratched the surface.
1/ The War of Independence ended in 1949 with Israel signing a series of Armistice Agreements with Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. Nevertheless, the countries maintained a state of belligerency against Israel after the agreements were signed.
2/ For Egypt, the first manifestation of such belligerency was the closing of the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping in 1949. Israel appealed to global bodies, and on Sept 1, 1951, the Security Council ordered Egypt to open the Canal to Israel. They refused.
September 6, 2007: Israel launched Operation Orchard, a secret military operation designed to destroy a Syrian nuclear reactor in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria, the 2nd known time Israel acted unilaterally to destroy an Arab nuclear reactor.
1/ In March 2007, the Mossad undertook a secret raid in Vienna, which targeted the head of Syria's Atomic energy Commission. With the information gleaned from the operation, the Israelis discovered that Syria had been working with North Korea to build a nuclear reactor.
2/ With information they deemed unimpeachable, the Israelis went to the Americans (notably, @IsraeliPM Ehud Olmert spoke directly with POTUS George W Bush) and told them they discovered that Syria had been building a nuclear reactor.
1/ During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich Germany, Israel was participating with a delegation of 15 athletes.
On the morning of Sept 5, 1972, members of the Palestinian terror group Black September, scaled the wall of the Olympic compound, and made their way to the Israelis.
2/ Quickly, 8 members of the terrorst group took 9 members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage, after killing 2 of them, along with a West German police officer.
1/ Antisemitism in the Arab world was rife during and immediately after World War Two. Egyptian society became enamoured with the Nazi war against the Jews, and this spread to Iraq - which had a significant Jewish population.
2/ In particular in June 1941, a violent pogrom, now called the Farhud, swept through Baghdad's significant Jewish population and killed 180 Jews, with over 1,000 injured. Looting of Jewish property took place and 900 Jewish homes were destroyed. The Jews were now on notice.
1/ By the time the State of Israel was established in May 1948, 3 years had passed since the end of the WW2 and the Holocaust. Given the enormity of the crime, it became difficult to choose a single day as the most appropriate to commemorate this dark time in recent history.
2/ In fact, in 1947, even before Israel was established, the Chief Rabbinate of Mandatory Palestine set up a committee to think of a date for a memorial. They thought to relate it to the annihilation of the Warsaw Jewish community, which before the war at 500,000 Jews.