Lebanese mark liberation of South Lebanon from Israel

People in Lebanon have marked the 13th anniversary of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the country’s south after 22 years of occupation, Press TV reports.

Lebanese celebrated the Liberation Day on Saturday to commemorate Israel’s pullout as a clear military defeat for Tel Aviv.

On May 22, 2000, the Israeli regime began to pull out its forces from south Lebanon and the Western Bekaa area after more than two decades of occupation. During the next three days, the regime increased the speed of withdrawal as they came under the fire of Hezbollah’s resistance movement.

A seminar was held in Lebanon’s state university as part of the celebration, with one of the Lebanese top Christian leaders stressing that the day was the beginning of victories which would continue to this day.

“We stressed that today we are with the resistance, and a year ago we were with the resistance, and we will be with the resistance, and even after 100 years we will be with the resistance, which will continue to be victorious,” Lebanese MP, Suleiman Frangieh, said at the seminar.

The liberation was seen by all Lebanese as a proof of years of popular resistance against Israeli occupation which began in 1978.

Hezbollah’s protracted war of attrition against Israeli occupiers had put Israeli authorities under great pressure to leave Lebanon.

People consider May 25 as a beginning of dramatic changes in the region.

The Lebanese have commemorated the day as a national holiday and seen it as a transformation that changed the regional equations for good, and put an end to the invincibility myth of the Israeli army.