On 7 June 1981 , the Israeli air force destroyed Iraq 's sole nuclear reactor under construction just outside Baghdad , in order to impede Iraq 's nuclear weapons program . Following a series of PLO attacks in 1982 , Israel invaded Lebanon that year to destroy the bases from which the PLO launched attacks and missiles into northern Israel . In the first six days of fighting , the Israelis destroyed the military forces of the PLO in Lebanon and decisively defeated the Syrians . An Israeli government inquiry — the Kahan Commission — would later hold Begin and several Israeli generals as indirectly responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacre and hold Defense minister Ariel Sharon as bearing " personal responsibility " for the massacre Sharon was forced to resign as Defense Minister . In 1985 , Israel responded to a Palestinian terrorist attack in Cyprus by bombing the PLO headquarters in Tunisia . Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986 , but maintained a borderland buffer zone in southern Lebanon until 2000 , from where Israeli forces engaged in conflict with Hezbollah . The First Intifada , a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule , broke out in 1987 , with waves of uncoordinated demonstrations and violence occurring in the occupied West Bank and Gaza . Over the following six years , the Intifada became more organised and included economic and cultural measures aimed at disrupting the Israeli occupation . More than a thousand people were killed in the violence . During the 1991 Gulf War , the PLO supported Saddam Hussein and Iraqi Scud missile attacks against Israel . Despite public outrage , Israel heeded American calls to refrain from hitting back and did not participate in that war
Sabra and Shatila massacre
Sabra and Shatila massacre
Israel