In July 2006, Israeli troops were two weeks into their unsuccessful campaign to rescue captured soldier Gilad Shalit when the Shia Muslim political and militant movement attacked from the north.
Its fighters launched dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortars at Israel and seized two more soldiers and killed eight others in cross-border raids.
It was seen as a dramatic gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians, but Israel’s response was far more dramatic and devastating to Lebanon.

As Israel continues its air offensive against Hamas in the Gaza strip, one unsettling specter has emerged from the recent past: the failed campaign to crush the Lebanese militants of Hizballah in July 2006. Lebanon was clearly on the minds of Israel’s military planners. Even as Hamas targets were pounded in Gaza, Israeli jets flew low level saber-rattling sorties over southern Lebanon, a warning to militants not to launch reprisal attacks along Israel’s volatile northern border.
For now, the Shi’ite Hizballah appears to be confining its protests to fiery rhetoric …

Katyusha multiple rocket launchers (Russian: Катюша) are a type of rocket artillery originally built and fielded by the Soviet Union in the Second World War. Compared to other types of artillery, such multiple rocket launchers are able to deliver a devastating amount of explosives to an area target more quickly but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload. These vehicles are fragile compared to conventional artillery guns, but relatively inexpensive and easy to produce. Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the …