The Battle of Ayta ash-Sha'b took place during the 2006 Lebanon War, when the Israel Defense Forces and the Islamic Resistance, the armed wing of Hezbollah, fought over the town of Ayta ash-Sha'b in southern Lebanon. The fighting started with the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid. After a failed Israeli incursion immediately after the cross-border raid, the town was subjected to two and a half weeks of intense bombardment by air and artillery. The ground battle for the Ayta ash-Sha'b lasted about two weeks, from late July to mid-August. The IDF deployed five brigades. The Hezbollah force in the town was estimated to consist of little more than half a company. Still the IDF failed to capture the town and suffered relatively heavy casualties in the process.
Background
On 12 July 2006, under the cover of mortar and rocket fire directed at Israeli communities and IDF positions, forces belonging to the Islamic Resistance launched a cross-border raid into Israeli territory, killing three Israeli soldiers and abducting two, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. The abductors apparently headed for the town of Ayta ash-Sha'b, less than a kilometer from the site of the abduction.
Nir Rosen writes that Ayta ash-Sha'b was defended by approximately 100 fighters, mainly local inhabitants. Some of the defenders of the town were not members of the Islamic Resistance or even of Hezbollah. According to Andrew Exum, the majority of the fighters were not "regular Hezbollah fighters". Blanford agrees that most of the fighters were local residents, but that they were "no second-rate home guard. They were battle-hardened veterans,… many of them with specialist training in anti-armor missiles and sniping." According to a study supported by Israeli authorities, Hezbollah's military infrastructure in the village consisted of 60–70 Hezbollah operatives.
The Battle
Ayta ash-Sha'b, other Lebanese border villages, and Hezbollah outposts were immediately subjected to bombardment from aircraft, artillery, and attack helicopters supporting Israeli ground forces. This would continue almost daily throughout the war. On the first day the IDF declared, somewhat optimistically, that "all Hezbollah outposts along the border were destroyed."
First attempted incursion
Less than two hours after the capture of the two soldiers, the IDF sent a force of tanks and armored personnel carriers across the border following a dirt track, through an olive grove called Khallat Warda, leading to Ayta ash-Sha'b. The force was ordered to capture a Hezbollah post and to take control of the exit roads from the town, in case the abducted soldiers were still there. Only 70 meters into Lebanese territory, a Merkava heavy battle tank drove over a remote-controlled mine. The tank was destroyed and its four crewmen were killed instantly, and the mission to capture the access roads to the town was quickly abandoned. Hezbollah fire prevented the extraction of the destroyed tank and the remains of the four soldiers just inside Lebanese territory for several days. A fifth soldier was killed and two soldiers wounded in the effort. Defence Minister Amir Peretz, who watched the tank exploding live on his monitor, was stunned. It was later described as the "Zidane effect" that cemented Israel's resolve towards going to war.
Shelling and displacement of the population
On the evening of 12 July, IDF Northern Command contemplated sending paratroopers to Ayta ash-Sha'b "to conduct arrests". This was postponed because of a lack of intelligence. During the first week the fighting was limited to exchanges of fire over the border. The original Israeli plan deemed it unnecessary to occupy Lebanese territory to rid the border of Hezbollah.
Israel started shelling Ayta ash-Sha'b about an hour after the cross-border raid. Around 03.00 the following morning 13/7 the Israeli Air Force started attacking ground targets in south Lebanon. A few hours later Hizbullah retaliated by firing off rockets at targets in northern Israel. Within one hour, Israel suffered its first civilian fatality.
The IDF used the air force, both aircraft and attack helicopters, and artillery fire. The Lebanese fighters fired rockets, guided missiles, mortars, Katyusha rockets and heavy machine guns at Israeli towns and IDF positions.
The headquarters of the 91st Division at Biranit just across the border from Ayta ash-Sha'b was subjected to a "hard and extremely accurate" attack by Katyusha rockets. The Command bunker received a direct hit destroying the generator and cutting off light and air supply to the facility. Only the dim lights of cell phones could be seen when terrified Israeli soldiers called home. According to Islamic Resistance commanders the fighters suffered no casualties during this period.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth more than 300 rockets were fired from the area of Ayta ash-Sha'ab during the war. According to an IDF sponsored study, however, IDF radar detected 156 rockets being launched from inside villages throughout South Lebanon during the war, but none from Ayta ash-Sha'b.
According to Lebanese sources Hezbullah did not have artillery or rocket firing positions inside the town but used "Nature Reserves", well-entrenched positions in the country-side, to shell IDF positions and Israeli civilian settlements.
The IDF artillery used the Nurit Radar detection system for identifying the location of incoming rockets and mortars, and rapidly fire back at the source of fire. This action had no noticeable effect on the rate of Hezbullah firing. Towards the end of the war IDF understood that the firing positions in the "Nature Reserves" were covered in bunkers with metal hatches and the launchers were only exposed at the time of firing.
On 14 July the IDF launched operation "Salvation to the South" to encourage the evacuation of the civilian population in the border villages, among them Ayta ash-Sha'b.
The civilian inhabitants of the town were warned through loudspeakers, leaflets and radio messages to evacuate the town. To prove their point, IDF artillery units would fire a number of explosive shells at areas a few hundred meters from built-up areas. If the calls were not heeded, then another number of shells were fired at the villages' fringes. If this didn't help non-explosive grenades (smoke or lightening grenades) were fired into the center of villages.
The great majority of the population of Ayta ash-Sha'b therefore left the town. Some civilians stayed put for a variety of reasons. Some had no means of transport or could not afford to rent such. Others stayed on principle, refusing to be expelled from their homes. Yet others stayed to help the fighters, by cooking food for them or tending to the wounded.
Second attempted incursion
About a week into the war the IDF resumed ground operations around Ayta ash-Sha'b, with nightly incursions by foot, mainly around the Old Quarter in the west and the northern sections of the town, such as the Abu Tawil hill. These incursions were described by Arkin as "probes" and probably served mainly to gather intelligence.
On the 19th, Northern Command launched Operation Webs of Steel 1, a simultaneous attack on the border villages of Maroun ar-Ras, Marwahin and Ayta ash-Sha'b. A unit of Paratroopers infiltrated northern Ayta ash-Sha'b, with orders to attack suspected weapons caches. The unit was detected by Hezbullah and a clash ensued. One IDF soldier was seriously wounded and had to be evacuated by helicopter.
Meanwhile, the attack on Maroun ar-Ras failed and led to a number of IDF casualties. The forces about to attack Ayta ash-Sha'b were called back and were redirected as reinforcements to Maroun ar-Ras.
Decision to create a Security Zone
Two weeks into the war it was clear that the Israeli strategy was not working. In late July the Israeli cabinet therefore approved "Operation Web of Steel 3" (later renamed Operation Change of Direction 8), designed to take control of a "security zone", 6–8 kilometers wide, along the border. Reserves were called up and eight brigades amassed on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
On 31 July Israeli paratroopers effectively surrounded Ayta ash-Sha'b with the intention of driving out Hezbollah. They were met with fierce resistance. On the next day they advanced on the town from two directions. One company-sized unit was advancing into the eastern Abu Laban quarter. The troops were discovered by Hezbollah forces, which after several hours of fighting forced the Israelis to retreat. During this fight Hezbollah suffered its first fatality, Younis Surour. The other force, the 890th Paratrooper Battalion, attacked the Old Town from the north and advanced towards the Imam Hussein mosque. The battalion came under fire, and its forces got separated as they took cover. Israeli soldiers were shocked by the ferocity of the fire and several stopped functioning. The attack was aborted and reinforcements were called in to extract dead, wounded and shell-shocked soldiers. According to Hezbollah, another Lebanese fighter, Hisham as-Sayyid, was killed while pursuing the retreating Israelis. Three Israeli soldiers, including an officer, were killed and at least 25 were wounded. The IDF claimed that 15 Hezbollah guerrillas had been killed in the clash, though Hezbollah claimed it only lost two fighters. Israeli injured had to be carried by their comrades, under Hezbollah fire, back to the Israeli border. It took the wounded a whole day to reach the hospital in Nahariya. The Paratroopers were originally supposed to move north the following day but because of the casualties sustained, they were ordered to remain in the vicinity of the town.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz expressed his growing frustration at the slow progress IDF was making to his senior officers: "It's infuriating – we're circling Ayta al-Shaab for the third time already."
Continued street fighting
On 2 August, "harsh battles" were reported inside the town. One Israeli paratrooper was reported killed and nine wounded. On the same day, an Israeli force surrounded a house in the northern Abu Tawil section of the town. When the house was searched, two Hezbollah fighters hiding in the house were discovered and taken prisoner.
Israeli media reports were still upbeat and reported that the IDF "during the day" [sic] was "set to complete its deployment" in a 5–6 kilometers wide "security zone" along the Lebanese border, all the way between Metula and Rosh HaNikra. Ayta ash-Sha'b, less than a kilometer from the border, was going to prove a much more difficult nut to crack than expected.
The Hezbollah fighters generally fought from well-protected positions. A Hezbollah fighter told Lebanese daily as-Safir after the war how close the Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah guerrillas were, sometimes separated only by an alley or a destroyed house. The first time he saw Israeli soldiers he could not believe his eyes: "They were so close that sometimes our units would overlap theirs". The Israeli soldiers would advance into a neighborhood and seek cover in a building when exposed to fire. The fighters would then target the building with remote-controlled missiles or rocket-propelled grenades. Most of the casualties sustained by the IDF were caused by rockets or missiles. When Israeli forces retreated the fighters would generally take cover in tunnels or shelters to avoid the shelling or bombardment from the air that would usually follow. When the shelling stopped the fighters would emerge to face the expected Israeli advance. In one case, three Hezbollah fighters took cover in a shelter during an air raid. The shelter received a direct hit and collapsed, killing them. Their bodies could not be recovered for 10 days. Another Hezbollah fighter also became one of the first Lebanese killed by a drone strike during the war.
In spite of the substantial losses, IDF officials denied that there was any intention of withdrawing from the village, without "a clear surrender" of Hezbollah, because it was major stronghold and considered a "symbol of the determination" of the movement.
On 5 August, a soldier from the Carmeli brigade was killed and several others wounded by a missile. The Brigade commander then decided to withdraw, abandoning all the positions previously captured in the town by both the Carmeli Brigade and by the Paratroopers. He was heavily criticised for this decision after the war.
On 6 August, the Defense Minister again expressed his dissatisfaction over the army's inability to conquer Ayta ash-Sha'b. The orders to the IDF to quickly occupy Ayta ash-Sha'b were repeated several times over the coming days. A negotiating team that had been sent to the town to negotiate a peaceful surrender of its defenders returned empty handed on 7 August.