Tyre raid

The Tyre raid was a night mission by the Israel Defense Forces naval commando unit, Shayetet 13, in Tyre, South Lebanon, on August 5, 2006. The target was an apartment building, allegedly housing Hezbollah leaders responsible for the rocket attack on Hadera a day earlier. The entire operation lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes.[4]

2006 Tyre raid
Part of 2006 Lebanon War

An IDF Shayetet 13 filmed during the operation in Tyre.
DateAugust 5, 2006
Location
Tyre, Lebanon
Result Raid unsuccessful
Belligerents
Israel Israel Defense Forces Hezbollah
Units involved
Israel Shayetet 13 Armed wing
Casualties and losses
10 soldiers wounded
1 soldier killed (Hezbollah claim)[1]		 1–2 killed[2][3]
(Lebanese claim)
6–10 killed (IDF claim)
1 Lebanese soldier and 4 civilians killed (Lebanese claim)

The raid

Lebanese sources reported that the IDF commando forces arrived in helicopters around 1:00 a.m. and landed in an orange grove near the city's northern environs. The troops cut through a fence and opened fire on a second floor apartment of an apartment building, which was the apparent target of the raid. The apartment was hit by fire, and eyewitnesses reported its occupants were wounded.[5]

When withdrawing from the building exchanges of fire between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah gunmen erupted, with Israeli Air Force helicopter gunships providing the soldiers on the ground with fire-support. The clashes were described by Hezbollah spokesman as an "ambush".[1] Some three hours later, at around 4:00 a.m., the soldiers withdrew from the area. Two severely wounded soldiers, as well as the other casualties, were airlifted to the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel. The targeted apartment building was bombed into rubble by an Israeli jet later in the afternoon.[2]

IDF claimed to have shot “two or three Hezbollah commanders” thereby “taking out” a key guerrilla unit involved in firing long-range rockets into Israel. Hezbollah claimed it had successfully repulsed the attack.[6] [3]

According to the IDF "at least six",[7] seven[5] or ten[8] Hezbollah fighters were killed in the clashes while 10 IDF soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously. According to Lebanese sources one[2] or two[3] Hezbollah fighters, a Lebanese army soldier and at least four civilians were killed in the raid.[9]

IDF later admitted that the Hezbollah squad holed up in the apartment refused to surrender and that the Hezbollah commanders managed to escape.[10][11] Hezbollah resumed rocket launching from the site within hours of the raid.[2]

Sources
  1. Agence France Presse (AFP) (August 5, 2006). "Hezbollah says it foiled Israel commando raid on Tyre". Daily Star. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved Jan 18, 2012.
  2. Blanford (2011), pp. 393-94
  3. "Israeli claim of 11 Hezbollah fighters killed in battle". AP. 5 August 2006. Archived from the original on 7 August 2006. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  4. Yaakov Katz (26 June 2012). "Naval Commandos Raid Tyre". JPost.
  5. Efrat Weiss (August 5, 2006). "10 soldiers hurt in raid on Tyre". Yedioth Ahronoth. Retrieved Jan 18, 2012.
  6. "Deadly Fighting In South Lebanon". CBS. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  7. Amos Harel (6 August 2006). "Commando raid in Tyre kills senior Hezbollah operatives". Haaretz. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  8. Efrat Weiss (8 May 2006). "Tyre raid 'heroic operation'". Yedioth Ahronoth. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
  9. "Israeli commandos stage Tyre raid". BBC. 5 August 2006. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
  10. Pedahzur, Ami, The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism, Columbia University Press, 2010, p. 132
  11. Amos Harel (1 June 2010). "Elite Shayetet unit often carries army's heaviest, most secretive burdens". Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  • Blanford, Nicholas (2011). Warriors of God, Inside Hezbollah's thirty-year struggle against Israel. New York: Random House.

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