Lebanon Marks 16th Liberation Day Anniversary

Israeli troops left most of south Lebanon on May 25, 2000, after 22 years of occupation. However, Israel still occupies a portion of the Shebaa Farms in the southeast.

“We salute the Resistance that freed Lebanon after 22 years of occupation following the international community's failure to enforce the execution of the Resolution 425 on Israel,” Free Patriotic Movement founder Michel Aoun wrote on Twitter, the Daily Star reported.

Aoun was referring to the UN Security Council Resolution adopted in 1978, five days after the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon, calling on Israel to withdraw its forces from the country.

He congratulated the Lebanese people on the occasion, saying: “We strongly appreciate the sacrifices that have been made, and are still being made by the Resistance and its people. We bow down in front of every drop of blood that has been shed, and is still being shed, for the liberation and the conservation of this land.”

Kataeb Party head MP Sami Gemayel also applauded the country on the occasion on Twitter.

“The joy of the liberation will be complete with the forced return of the deportees," Gemayel said, referring to Lebanese who collaborated with the Israeli army and their families who fled the country during the Israeli withrawal.

He added the hashtag: "It's their right to return."

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, whose party is credited with leading the resistance that forced Israel to withdraw, will give a speech at 5:30 pm local time during a celebration in the Bekaa Valley village of Nabi Sheet.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the party leader is expected to talk about the capabilities and potential of the resistance against Israel and the continued defense of Lebanon. He will also comment on the situation in Syria as well as internal issues, Al-Manar added.

“May 25 is a legend, a people’s sacrifice, a resistance until (we attain) liberation and victory,” Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh tweeted.

“History will remember Hassan Nasrallah and the resisters in letters of gold, and it will condemn all the rulers and the regimes that are conspiring today against the Resistance,” Tawhid Party chief Wiam Wahhab tweeted.

“On a day like this, the resistance freed Lebanon with the blood of its martyrs, the sweat of its people, and exposed the official Arab regime that had convinced us that Israel was invincible,” he added.

Former minister Faisal Karami also congratulated Lebanon.

“We proudly reflect upon the great victories that have been attained against the Israeli enemy,” he said.

“However, with all the achievements and the sacrifices, the Israeli threat still exists on land, in the sea, and in the air. This danger cannot disappear without a united stance against the Arab world’s enemy.”