Israel says Lebanon campaign was war as debate over name continues

ISRAEL formally declared last year’s fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas a war yesterday, but it is searching for a name for the 34-day conflict.

A ministerial committee decided on the designation and its chairman said he expected a name would be found within a week, in consultation with a separate panel set up by Defence Minister Amir Peretz.

Most Israelis refer to the fighting last July and August as the “Second Lebanon War” — waged 24 years after Israel battled the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Lebanon.

But cabinet minister Yaacov Edri, who chairs the ministerial committee, said the name would not work because the fighting in 1982 was designated as an “operation” rather than a war.

“I think the ‘Northern War’ would be the proper name,” he told Channel 10 television.

Lebanese generally refer to the conflict as the “July War”, while Hezbollah calls it “The Divine Victory.”

Israeli officials began searching for a name at the behest of families of some of the 117 Israeli soldiers and 41 Israeli civilians killed in the conflict.

Some relatives believe inscribing “war” on their headstones would be a fitting tribute.

Some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in Lebanon, Lebanese officials have said.

About 270 Hezbollah guerrillas, 15 other gunmen, 35 Lebanese soldiers and police and five UN peacekeepers were among the dead.