In May 2000, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. Some doubted what the withdrawal would achieve in the long term, given that Hezbollah remained undefeated and armed.
Nevertheless, until Israel's 2006 invasion of Lebanon, the years since the withdrawal saw a much more peaceful border, and although the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms saw incidents, the rest of the border was mostly quiet. However, political and media spin plays a large part in perpetuating the myth that Hezbollah has been consistently menacing and attacking Israel since its withdrawal.
The chief bone of contention surrounding the withdrawal was the Shebaa Farms, the status of which is explained at:
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/CountryBackgrounds/Lebanon/TheShebaaFarms/tabid/173/Default.aspx
Significantly, Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon was unilateral, not the product of an agreement between the two countries.
The UN established an interim force, UNIFIL, in Lebanon in 1978 that remains there still, its mandate having been regularly extended. Every six months, the situation was reported. In his report of July 2000 to the Security Council, the secretary-general noted that "the Israeli forces had left, their local Lebanese auxiliary had been disbanded, and after more than two decades the guns had fallen silent."
The UN reports in its appraisal of the situation six months later that along the Blue Line (the line of demarcation), "Hezbollah members were normally unarmed. They monitored the Blue Line, maintained public order, and provided social, medical and education services."
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/background.html
In the Middle East Review of International Affairs in September 2000, Laura Zittrain Eisenberg points out that Hezbollah's post-withdrawal behavior was very encouraging, and that there was "no wave of revenge killings, massacres or sectarian ruptures, as opponents of the withdrawal plan predicted."
She says Hezbollah proved infinitely better prepared for the withdrawal than the Lebanese government, noting that "while the government dithered, Hezbollah took quick and effective control of hospitals and clinics, trucked in water, and brought bulldozers, engineers, and doctors to the south."
http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2000/issue3/jv4n3a2.html
One year on from the withdrawal, Shlomo Brom of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv University wrote that "the number of actions taken by the organization against Israeli targets has fallen from a rate of thousands per year to only a handful of isolated actions over the past year."
He added that "attacks against Israeli civilians have not taken place. During the past year there have been no attacks against the civilian populace of northern Israel, allowing the residents to conduct normal lives."
http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/sa/v4n2p4Bro.html
However, a peaceful project in October 2002 to install a new pumping station in Lebanon that draws on a river within the country, well within its rights, was described by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as cause for war. The BBC reports that Israeli warplanes were circling the area just days before the high-profile inauguration ceremony of the new installation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2333871.stm
In his report to the Security Council in July 2001, the secretary-general stated that violations of the line continued to occur, but that "those from the Lebanese side amounted to crossings by shepherds and occasional vehicles," while "Israeli aircraft violated the line on an almost daily basis, penetrating deep into Lebanese airspace."
The majority of incidents were confined to the Shebaa Farms. Anti-aircraft fire was reported in response to Israeli aircraft incursions into Lebanese airspace, but the UN secretary-general said in a July 2003 report that the previous six months had been the "longest period of relative calm since Israel withdrew from Lebanon more than three years ago after 22 years of occupation."
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/background.html
De-mining was also a significant success to the area post-withdrawal, with an area of 4.8 million square metres cleared by UNIFIL. Furthermore, southern Lebanon participated in municipal and parliamentary elections during this time.
However in 2004, the UN secretary-general voiced concern that "Israel persists in its provocative and unjustified air violations of sovereign Lebanese territory." This was echoed in his report of January 2006, noting that "persistent Israeli air incursions into Lebanese airspace also disrupted the fragile calm."
Interestingly, then-Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on 18 February 2005 that Hezbollah has "never, never, never used missiles against Israel on the northern border since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000."
http://web.israelinsider.com/views/8946.htm
Certainly, serious incidents on the ground have occurred. Reporting in 2003, the UN secretary-general notes that the Shebaa Farms remain "a significant source of concern." The UN records examples in which heavy exchanges of fire and loss of life have occurred following Israel's withdrawal, but it is important to note that all serious incidents occurred in the Shebaa Farms.
Incidents elsewhere along the border were comparatively insignificant, evident in the fact that the region barely registered a mention in the UN's comprehensive assessment of southern Lebanon in the post-withdrawal period.
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/background.html