Wednesday May 24, 2000 5:47 AM ET 
Israel Ends Its 22-Year Occupation of Lebanon

 
 
By Sultan Sleiman

BEAUFORT CASTLE, Lebanon (Reuters) - Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in the pre-dawn hours of
Wednesday in a rushed evacuation after the collapse of its local militia.

The last two Israeli soldiers shut the gate at the Fatma border crossing at daybreak after troops had streamed out
of Lebanon during the night destroying their bases and leaving them behind in smoldering ruins.

U.N. peacekeepers reported the all quiet across south Lebanon. For the first time in decades there was no shelling
and no air or sea violations of Lebanese territory by Israeli forces, they said.

``There are no reports at all,'' said Timur Goksel, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the 4,500-man U.N. Interim Force in
Lebanon, when asked about Israeli overflights and incursions by warships.

In the town of Marjayoun, the headquarters of the Israel-run South Lebanon Army until it collapsed in two days of
desertions and retreat, residents woke to see the arrival of the Muslim Hizbollah guerrillas and civilians who had
long ago fled the Israeli occupation.


 
Christian residents were nervous but Hizbollah officials assured them they had nothing to fear. Many of the senior SLA
ranks, all Christians, had fled with their families to Israel on Tuesday.

As Israeli forces were streaming out of Lebanon, Hizbollah relished its triumph at a rally in Beirut for dozens of the
prisoners freed when a crowd stormed the notorious SLA prison in Khiam, in the former Israeli occupation zone.

``This is the first glorious victory in 50 years of Arab-Israeli conflict,'' Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah
told hundreds of followers at the organization's headquarters in the teeming southern suburbs of the capital.

``By morning you will see the photographs of the last Israeli soldiers leaving Lebanon, humiliated,'' the Muslim leader
said. An announcer read the names of the captured Israeli positions for the jubilant audience.


Future Unclear


The dramatic collapse of the Israeli occupation, weeks before Prime Minister Ehud Barak's self-imposed deadline for a
withdrawal demanded by the Israeli public, left the future of the region unclear.

The United Nations, backed by calls from the United States, wants the Lebanese army to fill the vacuum to ensure there
are no attacks over the border at Israel but Lebanon has indicated its troops will not advance soon.

If Lebanese troops were at the Israeli border, they would be held responsible for ensuring there are no cross-border
attacks on Israel -- something the Beirut government has refused to accept.

Despite criticism from Beirut that U.N. plans to confirm an Israeli withdrawal and deploy in the vacated area leave its
demands unsatisfied, Lebanese Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss issued a statement hoping for calm in the south.

 
 
``History will record that on this day the will of the Lebanese and the sacrifices of their resistance have defeated the
strongest military force in the region,'' Hoss said.

``The Lebanese who celebrate this glorious victory today will, God willing, enjoy its calm, prosperity and security in
coming days,'' he added.

Hoss said Lebanon would not forget Lebanese prisoners still held in Israel and its claim to Shebaa Farms, a strip
adjoining the Golan Heights that the United Nations has ruled was not part of the Israeli occupation.

The issues were expected to top the agenda when U.N. Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen arrives later Wednesday to
discuss the plans, which are supposed to lead to the government taking firm control of south Lebanon.


Israelis Pleased To Leave


Israel tried to take solace in the successful evacuation of its forces and its soldiers were clearly relieved to be out
of a conflict that they had been unable to win.

``We are in Israel, back home,'' said an officer as the last troops crossed. ``We will defend ourselves, and we hope there
will be peace.''

From the time it first invaded Lebanon in 1978 to drive back Palestinian guerrillas until its last casualty this year,
Israel lost about 900 men in the occupation. The Lebanese suffered a death toll estimated at tens of thousands, most during
Israel's 1982 invasion.

Israel's northern town of Kiryat Shmona was largely deserted Wednesday, abandoned for fear Hizbollah guerrillas would fire
Katyusha rockets across the border. Barak has warned of severe retribution for any attack.

But Hizbollah showed no intention of wanting to retaliate despite the killings of eight Lebanese civilians in the two days
of the SLA collapse, and fears of mayhem during the withdrawal proved unfounded.

When the guerrillas moved into abandoned Israeli positions they found smoldering wreckage and clothing discarded by the
retreating forces.

At the Crusader-era Beaufort Castle, an Israeli stronghold that had once been a Palestinian guerrilla post, concrete bunkers
had been blown up, collapsing part of the historic stone wall. The huge explosion set off as the last soldiers left by
helicopter at midnight lit up the sky.

Hundreds of local residents converged at dawn on the castle, which has been off-limits for decades as first the Palestinians
and then the Israelis used it as a military base.

``I brought my kids here to teach then a lesson about how we defeated Israel,'' said Salem Sweidan, escorting his two young
children through the smoking debris. ``And to teach them never to let anyone in the future try to occupy our land.''