On May 24, 2000, Israel pulled back from southern Lebanon to the international border line, in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 425. Although Lebanon claimed that Israel was still holding some Lebanese territory, the Shaba'a Farms, UN Security Council confirmed that Israel had indeed withdrawn its forces from all of Lebanese territory.

Following the withdrawal, thousands of Lebanese, mostly Christian Maronites, fled to Israel, while the Islamist fundamentalist Hizballah took over the whole of southern Lebanon. Despite the Israeli full withdrawal, terrorist organizations in Lebanon, mainly Hizballah, continued to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian and military targets in northern Israel. One of these attacks - a cross-border raid and shelling of Israeli towns by Hizballah on 12 July 2006, which resulted in the killing of 8 Israeli soldiers and abducting two others (who died in captivity) - was the immediate cause of the Second Lebanon War (12 July - 14 August 2006).