Shimon Peres seeks to accelerate an Israeli-Syrian…

Shimon Peres seeks to accelerate an Israeli-Syrian deal but soon concludes that such an agreement cannot be reached quickly, if at all.

In early April, Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters fire Katyusha rockets at Israeli border towns and villages.

Accused of weakness in fighting terror (and in the midst of a tough election campaign), Peres responds by unleashing a major military action.

For seventeen days, Israeli air force and artillery units pound Hezbollah positions and Lebanese strategic installations.

There is an international outcry when Israeli gunners inadvertently hit a UN post sheltering hundreds of civilians at Qana, Lebanon, killing some one hundred Shi'ite refugees who had taken shelter there.

After nearly three weeks of fighting, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher brokers a new cease-fire agreement, which prohibits attacks on civilians as well as strikes across the border into Israel. (Differing only marginally from the agreement brokered by the U.S. after Israel's almost identical operation in July 1993, it does not put a stop to the low-level ongoing fighting in southern Lebanon).