As the ceasefire was due to take effect, the Defense Minister held a press conference in which he again explained the need for the operation, its various stages and the Israeli effort to avoid war with Syria. He admitted that on the "western side we went farther than 40 to 45 kilometers, " but added that "there is nothing that changed the basic decision of the government that speaks about the necessity of this security belt of 40 to 45 kilometers." The forward movement was done to destroy the P.L.O. infrastructure. He then outlined developments on the eastern sector saying that while efforts were made to prevent war with Syria, the Syrians moved missiles and there was need to attack immediately. At the conclusion of his opening remarks he announced that "we accomplished the mission, this campaign or operation. " He then said that Israel had suffered more than 100 dead and 600 wounded This figure was almost immediately corrected to over 135 dead.
Mr. Sharon announced that a ministerial committee was appointed by the cabinet that morning to consider the Israeli ideas for the future. He wanted a free, unified Lebanon, with a legitimate government, that would rule the country after the departure of all foreign forces that included the P. L. 0., Syrians and Israelis. He also stated that Israel had no plans to go into Beirut and that the I. D. F. has not gone into Beirut. He also explained, in the Hebrew portion of the press conference, that one of the Israeli goals in achieving a peace settlement was to gain 'freedom of action for Israel to act against terror all over the world. " In specifying the reasons for Israel's additional push northward to the Beirut-Damascus road, Mr. Sharon added that Israel wanted a "more convenient bargaining card for future negotiations. " Shortly after the press conference ended, Mr. Sharon flew to Junyeh for discussions with Bashir Gemayel about the need for an immediate linkage between the I.D.F. and the Phalangist forces, and a point in eastern Beirut was fixed Sharon urged Gemayel to enter the war in Beirut to flush out the P.L.O. in the western part of that city. Early that morning the I.D.F. was ordered to proceed to east Beirut from the Kafr Sill area. Text of the press conference follows:
Minister Sharon: After along period being attacked by Palestinian P.L.O. terrorists from Lebanon, and after warning again and again, for months and years, that we will not allow any actions to be taken against our citizens in Israel, along our borders, inside the country, and we will not allow any actions by the P.L.O. Palestinian terrorists against Jews and Israeli installations all around the world, actions and operations that cause us heavy casualties. I would like to mention that since the cease fire or the cessation of hostilities of July '81, we suffered 25 people killed, more than 250 wounded by terrorists operating from Lebanon. To that I may add that since 1968, by terrorists, P.L.O. terrorists, Palestinian terrorists operating from Lebanon, casualties in Israel and in Europe arrive to the figure of 1,002 dead, 4,350 wounded. Lebanon became the center of world terrorism. In the last year itself, more than 2,000 terrorists from all over the world, almost from every terrorist organization upon earth, got their training, briefing, equipment and so on in Lebanon. We warned again and again, we always thought that we must prevent war, we would like to prevent any military operation. We said it openly, all the leaders of this country talked about that, they used every diplomatic channel to make it clear that we will not allow, and we can not allow a situation where Jews are murdered, assassinated, if it's in Israel, if it's along the northern border of the country, or any other border, or in any other place upon earth. And we repeated that again and again and again, for years. But with no results. Therefore the Government of Israel decided on the 5th of June to attack the terrorist P.L.O. bases in Lebanon, in order to destroy them, and in order to create a strip of about 40 to 45 kilometers wide, a strip which will be clean in the future from any terrorist presence or activity, where an arrangement, which we don't know yet, that's going to be discussed, and we hope to try and start discussing it very early, because Israel does not have any intention whatsoever to keep any part, even one inch of the the Lebanese terrain. But we had to establish this security belt in order to avoid the terrorists to shell our civilian population along our northern border. And I would like to emphasize that they never shell any military installations, though there are so many of them in this area, and the many of them were overlooked by the terrorists. They always chose to attack civilian population: towns, villages, along the border. And these people became hostages in the hands of the terrorist organizations. So the goal, the target that was given by the government to the army, to the general headquarters, was to create this belt. We had a problem, because on the eastern side, in this area which I am pointing at now, the terrorists, the Palestinian terrorists, the members of the P.L.O. deployed their artillery and rocket launchers within the Syrian defensive positions. We made it very clear on the first day that we did not have any intention whatsoever to attack the Syrians. We made it clear to them directly through the media, and we used diplomatic channels in order to make it clear that we don't have any intention whatsoever to attack them. Not any intention whatsoever. We hoped that they would understand our message. And our message was a very simple one. To force the terrorists that were deployed within their defensive positions, to force them backward 25 kilometers in order to establish this necessary cushioning... security belt of 40 to 45 kilometers along our northern border, along every point in our northern border. But we did not manage. But even so, if you follow the Hebrew explanation all of you can come immediately to the second phase. As you can see here, here you can see the various stages of the operation. On the western side, the campaign went on two, along two currents going up north: One along the coastal plain, where we had the main centers of the terrorists, the other in the center, mostly in the area of the Beaufort Castle and Nabatiyeh area, which were a place in which terrorist concentrations have been hiding themselves for years and years. As you can see, if you look at these arrows here, you can see that we were advancing up north and north of this line of 40 kilometers. We did it, but on the eastern side we did not attack, and even did not approach too close the Syrian position. Our strategy was threat (unintelligible - ed.) the north, erosion from the south - and that in order not to be involved in any war with Syria. That was our main effort. We didn't have any intention whatsoever to be involved in any war against the Syrians. And as I said before, we made it clear again and again. I would like here to emphasize that though on the western side we went farther north than 40 to 45 kilometers, there is nothing that changed the basic decision of the government that speaks about the necessity of this security belt of 40 to 45 kilometers. We did it in order to destroy the infrastructure that has been built by the P.L.O. Palestinian terrorist organization, for years and years. And I must tell you that all of us are well experienced and we participated in all the wars and so on. I must admit that even ourselves that we saw so much, we could not believe what we have found in this area, all the preparations that the terrorist organizations, the P.L.O. Palestinian terrorist organizations, have made with a sole purpose, and that is to destroy Israel, or to cordon or inflict casualties upon us. But there is no change in our previous and first intention, to keep in our hands altogether only for a short time, and we would like to be short as possible, until an arrangement will be found that will secure our northern border from the rockets and artillery of the P.L.O. terrorist organizations. We moved forward in order to create a threat, in order to clean the area. In the eastern side, after making all the attempts, through every channel to convince the Syrians, and after the Syrians took advantage of the fact that Philip Habib visited Damascus - they took advantage and that was a clear deception, that while he was there, they moved forward their surface-to-air missiles, and some more Syrian troops that warned us of the need to attack them immediately. But I would like again to make it clear that before we did it, we announced and we demanded to remove these missiles, these additional missiles, immediately. We have not gotten any answer.. Therefore, we attacked these missiles, and this attack on the missiles was followed by an advance of our troops, that successfully and brilliantly managed to push backwards the Syrians to the range of these 40 kilometers that we need. Upon the accomplishment of this mission, today, midday 12 o'clock, the Israeli government announced that we are proposing a cease-fire. We hope that they will note we don't have any intention whatsoever to continue with this war. We have accomplished our mission, and that is to free our towns - I speak about civilian towns and settlements - from this threat and horror of being hostages of the Palestinian P.L.O. terrorists for years and years. We made it clear that we will regard any move of surface-to-air missiles into Lebanon as a violation, a clear violation, of the cease fire. And we announced this very clearly in part of the government resolution of today, that we will act immediately if that will happen. So as we accomplished the mission, this campaign or operation, we are all hoping now that it will be quiet, it will be peace, and a change will come to the area, because we always regarded the terrorist activities by the P.L.O. as the main threat to peace. Not only that we suffered casualties - that by itself is a terrible thing - but we know that these terrorist activities are the main threat to the peace in this region. I would like to emphasize that I gave very strict and severe instructions not to harm civilian population during the operation. You have to know that we suffered altogether heavy casualties. We are a small nation. We have more than one hundred people dead, among them many officers. We have about 600 wounded. Some of our best officers and soldiers were killed and wounded, among them Deputy-Chief-of-Staff (until recently) General Adam, one of the best soldiers and warriors, and a friend, who was killed in this operation. Tremendous effort was put by our people to secure lives of civilian population, and I think that the step that was taken by us would not have been taken, and were not taken by any other nation upon earth. No one would have done what we did here, and we paid for it. But we found, being a small nation, being Jews, we found that that was what we were expecting from ourselves to do, and therefore we did it. I made one other fact which might be interesting. That was the first time our own Merkava tank destroyed nine T-72s, which are the most advanced and modern Soviet tanks - which I think for them as well it's one of the first experiences, at least on our front, because on our front they are new. We hope, as I said, that will be peace, it will be quiet, and this operation that was I would say a combination of military actions, together with political thinking and decisions taken by the government, which was involved in every phase of this war, and that met I would say at least once a day to discuss the different phases of these activities - the government, and of course, maybe more than all of us, the Prime Minister himself.
Q: General Sharon, do you feel that this operation has broken the P.L.O.?
A: We believe that by this operation we caused to the P.L.O. terrorist organizations damage and casualties that they never suffered before, and we believe that if the solution will be found in order to secure our northern border, in the future may change the role of the P.L.O. terrorist organization.
Q: You said you hope it will take a short time for an arrangement. How long do you think that will take, and what conditions, what kind of arrangement are you looking for?
A: I would like to make it very clear: Israel hasn't got any intention whatsoever to keep even one inch of Lebanese territory... we hope that in Lebanon will be a legitimate government that will be able to run the country; we hope that the Lebanese, they themselves, will control the country - not the Syrians that were occupying Lebanon since January 1976, and not the P.L.O. terrorist organizations which we believe we destroyed in the last campaign, the operation - and of course, not ourselves, because we never had any intention to be there. We made it very clear: we don't have any intention whatsoever to stay there; we hope that that will be created, we would like that that will be done without any delay. We are ready to start working. The government decided today, appointed a committee of ministers that will discuss our approach. One thing I can tell you now: we will not accept any situation which will allow the terrorist organizations to keep our civilian settlers along the northern border as hostages.
Q: What are your plans for Beirut? There were reports yesterday that you dropped leaflets warning the Syrians to get out; are there possibilities you will try to clear the terrorists from Beirut?
A: We never had any intention to go into Beirut; as a matter of fact we have not gone into Beirut. As about the Christians, the Christians in Lebanon have been fighting for their right in the war that started, initiated by the P.L.O. terrorist organization in 1975, and then the Syrians joined; they were fighting for their lives and suffered thousands and thousands of casualties. No one in the Christian world never raised his voice for those Christians in Lebanon and never supported them. - the only ones were ourselves, being a small nation... in the world, the Jews who understand the meaning of extermination maybe better than any other nation on earth, we were the only ones to help them.
Q: You said that you effectively destroyed the P.L.O. There are estimates that there were about 10,000 P.L.O. in Lebanon before this attack. Can you tell us how many were killed, how many were captured, how many may still be in Beirut or in areas that you have not taken, possibly a nucleus for another, re-awakened P.L.O. organization in Lebanon?
A: First, about the fighters: armed troops of the P.L.O. were between fifteen to twenty thousand people organized in units; besides that, about 40,000 armed people not organized in units, part of the militia. They increased the number of the artillery pieces that they had, mostly since the cessation of hostilities agreement of July 1981, to number of more than 500 pieces. I was sorry that I can not give you yet the figures - we will give the figures in the future, no doubt about that - but in order to be accurate, I would not like to give now any figure. I can tell you that they suffered very heavy casualties, very heavy casualties. And their infrastructure was destroyed. But as you know, in this area, which is very mountain(ous) terrain, bushy terrain with beautiful plantations, terrorists may find cover and shelter for a long time; and now we are taking the, we are in the phase of the mopping-up operation, cleaning operation - that has nothing to do with the cease fire; that will be continued until we clean this area.
Q: The P.L.O. people are saying that the P.L.O. will rise again. Do you feel that you have smashed the P.L.O.?
A: I can only repeat that I believe that we managed to cause the P.L.O. such damage which should influence their activities for a very, very long period. I can assure you that the settlement that we are looking for - and we are looking for a settlement - the settlement will be - or the arrangement will be - that such infrastructure will not be established again. That is our goal. That is what we believe should be the purpose - and not only in order to stop the murder and assassination of our people in Israel and all around the world, not only because of that, but because we believe that the P.L.O. terrorism - the Palestinian P.L.O. terrorism - is the main threat for peace. Israel decided to go on the line of peace. We signed a peace agreement with... Egypt. We are ready to proceed with this process of peace. That is our aim, that is our goal. There is no greater danger to the peace that has been already achieved - or to the peace that we are looking for, that we hope so much to arrive to - no such greater danger than the P.L.O. terrorist activities.
I would like to end with some words about the Israel Defense Forces. This operation, as you know, was a combined operation, a very complicated combined operation, and the Israel army, its standing army, the regular part of the army, and its reserves that were mobilized, the arms, the air force, the commander in the air force and his commanders, the commander of the navy and his commanders, and sailors and pilots, and the ground troops, commanders of the northern command... and mostly I would say, the Chief of Staff, have shown a brilliant capability, determination.. and we made it clear a long time ago that we are not going to be dependent upon anyone but upon ourselves. And this very complicated operation, it was, I would say, accomplished in the most brilliant way, have shown again that we have an army, military troops, which I may say that it's a people's army; but it's a people's army that every nation on earth could be jealous of, and we are proud of.