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In early April 1996, Israel conducted its military operation "[[Operation Grapes of Wrath|Grapes of Wrath]]" in response to [[Hezbollah]]'s actions on Israeli military bases in south Lebanon. The 16-day operation caused hundreds of thousands of civilians in south Lebanon to flee their homes. On April 18, several Israeli shells struck refugee compounds, killing 102 civilians sheltered there.
Throughout the 1990s discontent had been growing in Israel about the occupation of part of Lebanon. Discontent increased as a result of a [[1997 Israeli helicopter disaster|1997 helicopter crash]] that killed 73 Israeli soldiers bound for Lebanon. [[Ehud Barak]] campaigned for prime minister on a platform of withdrawing from Lebanon. On June 28, 1999 Ambassador [[Farid Abboud]] addressed the LAWAC<ref>http://www.lawac.org/</ref> to give an update on the peace process.<ref>[http://www.lawac.org/speech/pre%20sept%2004%20speeches/abboud%201999.html Farid Abboud: Peace Process]</ref> Finally, on May 23, 2000, the [[Military of Israel|Israeli military]] carried out a Partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the south and the [[Bekaa valley]], effectively ending 22 years of occupation. The [[SLA]] collapsed and about 6,000 SLA members and their families fled the country, although more than 2,200 had returned by December 2001. With the withdrawal of Israeli forces, many in Lebanon began calling for a review of the continued presence of Syrian troops, estimated in late 2001 at approximately 25,000.
==Post-withdrawal period==
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