Second Lebanon War

On 12 July 2006 Hezbollah fighters crossed the border near Zar'it, ambushed an army patrol and abducted the reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev; three soldiers were killed in the ambush and five more in the pursuit. Israel answered with air strikes, destroying much of Hezbollah's medium-range rocket arsenal in the first nights, and later with ground battles at Maroun al-Ras, Bint Jbeil and Wadi Saluki. Over 34 days Hezbollah fired about 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, reaching Haifa and beyond and sending hundreds of thousands into shelters or south. In Israel 121 soldiers and 44 civilians were killed.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 ended the fighting on 14 August, calling for Hezbollah's disarmament south of the Litani River and an expanded UNIFIL force, terms that were never enforced. The Winograd Commission criticized the political and military leadership, and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz resigned. The bodies of Goldwasser and Regev were returned in a prisoner exchange in 2008. The border then stayed relatively quiet for 17 years, while Hezbollah rebuilt a far larger arsenal with Iranian help.