Israel and Lebanon

Three Israeli assaults on south Lebanon.

See also Lebanon and Iran-Israel/USA.
 
The first attack was against the PLO (Palestinian refugees and fighters in Lebanon) in 1978, to stop PLO attacks on Israel, followed by withdrawal. South Lebanese Shi’a Muslims were seriously affected and radicalised. An Israeli invasion of south Lebanon as far as Beirut took place in 1982, with bombings and massacres, leading to the evacuation of the PLO to Tunisia and also the separate formation of the Shi’ite militia Hezbollah, to oppose Israel. Israeli withdrawal in 1985, while supporting a Christian proxy army (SLA) in South Lebanon.
 
Low-level conflict with Hezbollah 1996-2000, and growth of the political and military power of Hezbollah amongst Shi'as in south Lebanon. Tensions remained, and in July-August 2006 there was a massive Israeli bombing assault on Shi’a South Lebanon against Hezbollah, with Hezbollah rockets also fired on northern Israelis cities. This led to a nominal Hezbollah victory and relative political paralysis in Israel.
The predominant background to this ongoing conflict goes back to the formation of Israel in 1948, and its punitive military strategy since then. Israeli pressure on the Sunni Muslim Palestinians, leading to large refugee movements to Lebanon in 1948 and 1967, fed internal frictions in Lebanon, stoking the Lebanese civil war (1975-90), leading then to Israeli invasions and Shi'a radicalisation.

Links:

Wikipedia: Israel-Lebanon Conflict
Wikipedia: 2006 Lebanon War
Global Security: Lebanon
Hezbollah: Party of God