page_title: Operation Sharp and Smooth
section_title: Assessments
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Sharp and Smooth / Assessments
caption_attribution_description: Israeli bombing in Baalbek
context_page_description: During the 2006 Lebanon War, Operation Sharp and Smooth, also known as the Baalbek operation, was an Israel Defense Forces raid on a hospital in the city of Baalbek, which was being used as a Hezbollah headquarters, and a neighbourhood of the city. The precise objectives of the raid remain classified, but it is known that a number of Lebanese, including Hezbollah and armed Lebanese Communist Party members, were killed, and five Lebanese civilians were arrested and detained in Israel as suspected Hezbollah members, but released after three weeks. The casualty figures for the raid vary. According to inquiries by Human Rights Watch and Lebanese authorities 16 Lebanese residents, most of them civilians, were killed. According to IDF ten Hezbollah militants were killed in the attack.
context_section_description: Stratfor concluded in an analysis of the raid that Israel took large risks and allotted huge military resources in carrying out the raid "well in excess of its achievements." Former chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon, a sharp critic of IDF conduct during the Lebanon war, questioned whether the raid was "justified in terms of risk, cost and benefit" and whether it was not simply "an adventure." HRW concluded that "the operation appears to have been based on questionable intelligence and had a disproportionate impact on civilians". Hezbollah leader Nasrallah mocked the raid during a speech on al-Manar TV in which he said "They stormed a hospital and threw a grenade...to search for injured fighters who they didn’t capture...they kidnapped five civilians and they are hostages. This is intelligence, this is the Mossad?" According to Ofer Shelach and Yoav Limor, the operation had a psychological influence on Hezbollah leadership as the attack was in the heart of their stronghold, the local commander of Bekaa area was dismissed, movement on the roads was minimized, and more energy was put on self-defense.
caption: Israeli bombing in Baalbek
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