Ansariya ambush
Ansariya ambush | |
---|---|
Part of the South Lebanon | |
Result | Hizbullah victory |
The Ansariya ambush took place during
Background
On the night of August 3, 1997 an Israeli unit from the
The ambush
About a month after the Kfour attack the Hizbullah Islamic Resistance received indications that Israel was planning a similar attack around Ansariya, a Lebanese coastal village located between Tyre and Sidon. It was therefore decided to attempt to ambush the Israeli force that was going to plant the explosive device.
The operation was planned by Islamic Resistance commander
The precise target of the Israeli operation was never clarified. Ronen Bergman claims that the target was Haldoun Haidar, a local Hizbullah commander, who was described by responsible officers at the IDF Northern Command as "minor and insignificant".[5] The Islamic Resistance, however, understood both where the Israelis would land and the approximate route they would then take. The Israelis would arrive from the sea and walk a few kilometres through citrus plantations towards the target. The Islamic Resistance decided to plant explosives on the likely route, to hit the Israelis before they could reach their target. They had, however, no indication of when Israel would strike, which was a problem because during the daytime the citrus groves were tended to by the local farmers. This meant that the area could not be mined during hours of daylight for fear of harming the farmers. The explosives therefore had to be placed each evening after sunset and removed each morning before daybreak.
Another problem was that the area around Ansariya was a weak spot for Hizbullah and dominated by
The Islamic Resistance ambush unit consisted of 20 fighters from the local militia, led by the local commander Abu Shamran.[7] According to later Israeli sources, several similar ambushes were organized at different locations.[8]
In the evening of 4 September 1997, a force of 16 commandos from the Israeli Navy’s special operations unit
Israeli Cobra helicopters quickly opened fire with TOW antitank missiles and 20 mm Chain guns, creating a perimeter of fire for the rescue helicopters. Reinforcements in the form of Sayeret Matkal commandos and the Israeli Air Force's Unit 669 rescue unit were landed by two CH-53 helicopters. The Sayeret Matkal commandos formed a defensive perimeter while the Unit 669 team evacuated the dead and wounded IDF soldiers. After two Hizbullah fighters were lightly wounded, it was decided to pull back. The AMAL fighters continued to fire on the Israelis with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, before pulling back themselves. The Hizbullah fighters continued however to fire mortar shells on the Israelis. Captain Dagesh Maher, a Druze military doctor from the rescue team was mortally wounded by shrapnel from a mortar shell. A civilian Lebanese couple, that happened to pass by in car, were sprayed with bullets by the Israeli soldiers. The woman died and the man was severely wounded.[10] A young girl was also killed in the crossfire. Lebanese army antiaircraft guns fired into the sky, hoping to hit the helicopters and jets overhead, and fired illumination rounds to light up the battlefield. An Israeli fighter jet fired at a Lebanese antiaircraft position and Israeli missile boats offshore fired several rounds into the village to silence the mortar fire, damaging several houses.[11][2]
More than four 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 when the explosives he was carrying were detonated.
Aftermath
The successful ambush at Ansariya was of course received with satisfaction by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon. But it was considered a catastrophe in Israel and it created a lot of unease in army circles. A total of five officers and seven 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. Shayetet 13 had for a long time avoided serious casualties. It would take the unit two years to recuperate from this blow. Prime Minister Netanyahu called it "one of the worst tragedies that has ever occurred to us".[12]
On May 25, 1998, the remains of Itamar Ilyah as well as body parts of at least two other soldiers who died in the Ansariya ambush were exchanged for 65 Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of 40 Hizbullah fighters and Lebanese soldiers captured by Israel. Among those returned to Lebanon, were the remains of Hadi Nasrallah, the son of Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a clash with IDF a week after the Ansariya ambush. [13]
Possible security leak
There was a widespread feeling in Israel that the Ansariya operation had been compromised. But the head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN) Moshe Ya'alon decided early on that the initial explosion must have come from the explosives carried by one of the Israeli soldiers. It would thus not appear as a planned ambush, but rather as a stroke of bad luck for Israel. Hizbullah thus appeared to have no prior knowledge of the operation and therefore no security leak in Israel was to be suspected.
A commission of Inquiry was appointed. It determined that most of the Israeli casualties were harmed by a different type of explosive, containing metal marbles (which the IDF explosives did not). The commission, however, ruled out the possibility of a security leak in Israel. The ambush was unplanned and not based on intelligence that Hizbullah had obtained. This conclusion was also confirmed by two other subsequent investigations.
On the first anniversary of the ambush, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah declared: “All I can say now is that we knew beforehand that there was going to be an operation” he said. “Now the question is: If the resistance knew, who told them? But we can’t disclose that, because that won’t be in the resistance’s best interest.” [14]
At first the focus was about a possible double agent, giving away the Israeli plans to Hizbullah. This version was voiced by The Independent's Beirut correspondent Robert Fisk. An Israeli agent was turned, who disclosed Israeli plans and fed Israel false information.[15] Bergman also claims that double agents in the SLA intelligence outfit played a role in the affair.[16]
In August 2010 Nasrallah revealed that Hizbullah had long been able to download the videos taken by Israeli drones overflying Lebanon. In August 1997 Hizbullah operatives had noticed an apparent Israeli interest in the area around Ansariya and concluded that they were planning a Kfour-type operation in the area. Israeli drones returned several times to the area and seemed to be following a path from the beach, through the plantations to a place north of Ansariya.
These revelations caused to an uproar in Israel. The IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi appointed a fourth commission of inquiry, headed by Col. (res.) Kobi Agmon, to examine whether the videos Hizbullah released were authentic. The commission’s conclusion was that the videos were indeed genuine and that Hizbullah had somehow succeeded in downloading the transmissions from the drones.
Some of the footage released by Hizbullah was even taken during the actual operation in 1997. Hizbullah was apparently able to follow the Israeli troop movements on the ground, in real time, during the whole operation and the rescue effort. It was apparent that Israel had seriously underestimated Hizbullah technical capabilities. But the conclusions of the fourth commission of inquiry was not made public. It was first revealed by the Israeli news site Ynet in 2017, 20 years after the incident.[17]
After these revelations the IDF started to encrypt video transmissions from drones.[18]
Israeli Fatalities
From Shayetet 13
- Lt. Col. Yosef Korakin, 32, of Herzliya
- Maj. Yitzhak Bentov, 28, of Kfar Saba
- Capt. Ram Lavinas, 22, of Shavei Zion
- Capt. Zvi Grossman, 21, of Tel Aviv
- Sgt. Maj. Raz Tabbi, 22, of Rishon le-Zion
- Sgt. Maj. Arye Abramson, 22, of Yavne’el
- Sgt. Maj. Yochanan Hilberg, 22, of Netzer Hazani
- Staff Sgt. Guy Golan, 21, of Kibbutz Hatzor
- Sgt. Maj. Itamar Ilya, 22, of Arad
- Staff Sgt. Gal Rodovsky, 20, of Herzliya
- Staff Sgt. Yaniv Shamiel, 20, of Kiryat Haim
From Rescue Unit 669
- Capt. Dagesh Maher, 26, of Maghar
References
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 190
- ^ a b Serge Schmemann (6 September 1997). "ISRAELIS' EDGINESS SHARPENED BY LOSS OF 12 IN LEBANON". New York Times. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 181-82
- ^ Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira (13 May 2019). "Mustafa Badr al-Din ("Zulfiqar") and the Ansariya Operation". Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ Bergman 2018, p. 467
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 187-88
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 187
- ^ a b Alex Fishman (21 June 2017). "What really went wrong in botched 1997 Shayetet 13 operation?". YNET News. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 187-89
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 208-09
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 190-191
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 193
- ^ "Background on Israeli POWs and MIAs". MFA. January 26, 2004. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 194
- ^ Robert Fisk (17 September 1997). "Israel ambushed: Double agent lured soldiers to death in Lebanon". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ Bergman 2018, p. 468
- ^ Blanford 2011, p. 189-96
- ^ YAAKOV KATZ (27 October 2010). "IDF encrypting drones after Hizbullah accessed footage". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
Bibliography
Blanford, Nicholas, Warriors of God, Inside Hezbollah’s Thirty-Year Struggle Against Israel, New York, 2011
Bergman, Ronen, RISE AND KILL FIRST, The secret history of Israel's targeted assassinations, Random house, New York, 2018