Litani Operation
LITANI OPERATION
Code name of the military operation launched by Israel against Lebanon, on 14 March, 1978. The operation followed an attack on a bus, near Tel Aviv, by a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) commando group that was based in Lebanon. The PLO assault on the civilian bus, traveling on Israel's Haifa–Tel Aviv highway, resulted in the deaths of thirty-seven Israelis. In response, 20,000 Israeli troops of the Israel Defense Force invaded Lebanon, advancing to the Litani River. The goal of the operation was the destruction of PLO bases south of the Litani and the removal of PLO guerrillas from the area, within range of the Israeli border. An estimated one thousand Lebanese and Palestinian casualties resulted from the invasion, and the United Nations Security Council responded with Resolution 425, calling for Israeli withdrawal and the creation of a United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) as a peacekeeping force. After three months, Israel ceded a 37-mile-long area of Lebanese territory, 3 to 6 miles deep, to UNIFIL and to an Israeli-supported Lebanese militia. The PLO nevertheless regained a presence in south Lebanon, and the failure of the Litani Operation figured in Israel's subsequent invasion of Lebanon in 1982.