The Day of Resistance and Liberation in Lebanon, a pivotal landmark in the history of confrontation against the Israeli enemy

Damascus (ST): For twenty-two years now the Day of Resistance and Liberation in Lebanon still embodies a pivotal turning point in the history of the confrontation against the Israeli enemy. The great victory achieved on May 25, 2000 and the liberation of the villages of southern Lebanon from the defilement of Zionist terrorism imposed the equation of power in Lebanon. This happened after the achievements and sacrifices of the resistance had yielded and proved the correctness of the choice and approach of the resistance and its ability to break the Zionist plans in the region.

The men of the Lebanese national resistance, over the long years of struggle and confrontation, carried out hundreds of operations and made huge sacrifices, which eventually led to the defeat of the occupation forces from southern Lebanon, so that the Liberation Day constituted a model to be followed in inflicting a heavy defeat on the Israeli enemy. This would not have been achieved without adhering to the golden equation represented by the army and the people’s resistance.

On the evening of the twenty-fifth of May 2000, the Israeli occupation forces, by order of the then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, carried out the withdrawal under cover of darkness and evacuated all the sites in southern Lebanon amid a state of confusion among their soldiers and officers, while the joys of victory were celebrated on that day in all the villages in southern Lebanon.

Prior to the day of victory and liberation, the people of southern Lebanon, on the twenty-first of May, formed human chains supported by the Lebanese resistance to liberate the occupied southern villages.

On the following day, the liberation reached the towns of Bint Jbeil, Ainata, Yaroun, Al-Tiri and the rest of the neighboring villages, while the people stormed the Khiyam detention camp and opened its doors and liberated the prisoners with the defeat of the occupation and its agents there. On the 24th of May, the people and the resistance advanced to the villages and towns of the Western Bekaa, Hasbaya and its villages, in order to defeat the occupation forces as well.

The Commander of the Lebanese Army, General Joseph Aoun, affirmed in his speech yesterday on this occasion that the Day of Resistance and Liberation is a bright station in the history of Lebanon, pointing out that the twenty-fifth of May 2000 was a milestone in the records of victory after the Lebanese managed to defeat the Israeli enemy from their land and destroy and shatter the myth of its military superiority.

K.Q.