Operation Density

The 2006 Lebanon War began when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. As a result of this, a forum was gathered in the Israeli army HQ in Tel Aviv, about the possible responses to the attack. One suggestion was the launch of "Operation Density", an air strike with the purpose of destroying the long-range rocket capability of Hezbollah. After a long discussion, the Israeli cabinet approved the operation.

In the early hours of July 13, a series of Israeli airstrikes targeted dozens of stationary missile launchers concealed in the homes of Hezbollah activists and Shiite families throughout Lebanon. The IDF claimed to have hit 59 missile launchers. A large number of Hezbollah's Iranian-made long-range rockets were claimed to have been destroyed, with estimates ranging from one-half to two-thirds.Harel and Issacharof, p. 91–92

"All the long-range rockets have been destroyed," Chief of Staff Halutz allegedly told the Israeli government on the second day of the war, "we've won the war."{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article620874.ece |title=Humbling of the supertroops shatters Israeli army morale |work=The Sunday Times |author=Uzi Mahnaimi |date=27 August 2006 |accessdate=4 December 2011 |location=London |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070304030521/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article620874.ece |archivedate=March 4, 2007 }}

Some sources agree that the operation was a success. According to Israeli journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff the operation was Israel's most impressive military achievement during the war and a "devastating blow for Hezbollah". Harel and Issacharoff claimed that the operation was a success due to the painstaking work carried out by Israeli intelligence. It also took Hezbollah completely by surprise, as it had believed that the location of its long-range missiles was a safely guarded secret.

US military analyst William Arkin acknowledged that two experienced American observers noted that the Israeli Air Force had devastated Hezbollah's missile stocks in 39 minutes, but wrote that there was "little evidence" that the Israeli Air Force even attempted, much less succeeded in, wiping out the medium and long-range rocket capability in the first days of the war. While he acknowledged that some sort of preplanned Israeli attack took place, he dismissed the claim as an "absurdity" and a "tale".Arkin p.128–129 Another US analyst, Benjamin Lambeth, however, insisted that it was far-fetched to suggest that the "authoritative Israeli leadership pronouncements" were not based on facts. He admitted however that there was "persistent uncertainty" surrounding the "few known facts and figures" concerning the attacks.{{cite news |url=http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG835.html |title=Air operations in Israel's war against Hezbollah: Learning from Lebanon and getting it right in Gaza |publisher=RAND Corporation |author=Lambeth, Benjamin S. |year=2011|accessdate=20 November 2012}} Anthony Cordesman believed that IAF probably destroyed most long and medium-range missiles in the first two days of the war but acknowledged that these claims "have never been validated or described in detail."Cordesman, 2007, p. 10 and 30

In 2024, The Washington Post quoted Oded Eilam, a former senior officer in the Mossad, as stating that the IDF destroyed 75 long-range missile launchers in 34 minutes, representing two-thirds of Hezbollah's long-range missile capabilities.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/28/israel-lebanon-history/ Israel eyes Lebanon offensive with lessons from past invasions]

Hezbollah long remained silent on this episode of the war. On the sixth anniversary of the Lebanon war Hezbollah chairman Hassan Nasrallah claimed that Hezbollah had known that the Israelis were collecting information on the rocket platforms and launchers and managed to move them without being detected. Most of the locations attacked by the Israeli air force were therefore empty.{{cite news |url=http://english.alahednews.com.lb/essaydetails.php?eid=20509&cid=444&st=Sayyed%20Nasrallah%20Speech%20on%206th%20Anniversary%20of%20Divine%20Victory#.UmqS4xBQhSI |title=Sayyed Nasrallah Speech on 6th Anniversary of Divine Victory: "Israel's" Operation Was Qualitative Illusion |publisher=Moqawama |author=Nour Rida |date=18 July 2012|accessdate=20 November 2012}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web|last=Arkin |first=William M. |url=http://aupress.maxwell.af.mil/Books/Arkin/arkin.pdf |title=Divining Victory: Airpower in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War |publisher=Air University Press |location=Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama |date=July 2007 }}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
• {{cite book |last=Cordesman |first=Anthony H. |title=Lessons of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War |author2=George Sullivan and William D. Sullivan |year=2007|publisher=CSIS |location=Washington}}
• Cambanis, Thanassis, A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel, Free Press, New York, 2010
• {{cite book|last1=Harel|first1=Amos|last2=Issacharoff|first2=Avi|title=34 Days: Israel, Hezbollah, and the War in Lebanon|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|year=2008|ref=citeHI/}}
• Lilach Gonen (July 13, 2012), [http://www.iaf.org.il/4384-39287-en/IAF.aspx Opening Strike]
• Dudi (David) Yaron (August 3, 2014), [http://i-hls.com/2014/08/israels-air-force-second-lebanon-war-protective-edge/ Israel’s Air Force: From the Second Lebanon War to Protective Edge]

{{coord missing|Lebanon}}

Category:Airstrikes during the 2006 Lebanon War

Category:Aerial operations and battles involving Israel

Category:July 2006 in Lebanon

Category:2006 building bombings