On this day in ...... 1978, the BBC reported on the flight of "[t]housands of Palestinian civilians" following "a third day of Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon." While "[h]eavy artillery shells fell within Israeli-controlled southern Lebanon" and international diplomats endeavored to put an end to the fighting, refugees headed for Beirut in "vans, lorries and old buses," and the death toll reached 150. The offensive was reported to be "in retaliation for the 11 March bus hijacking in Tel Aviv in which 35 people were killed and 100 others were injured." Israeli troops would leave southern Lebanon in June of the same year.
(Prior March 17 posts are here, here, and here)
