How did Israeli forces go beyond the Lebanese operation approved by Israel’s cabinet in 1982?

In 1982, the Israeli cabinet authorized a limited military operation in Lebanon, with Prime Minister Menachem Begin explicitly mandating that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops were not to advance more than 25 miles (40 km) beyond the Lebanese border.1

However, then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who served as the principal architect of the invasion, pursued more ambitious objectives. Sharon disregarded these cabinet-imposed limits and ordered the IDF to advance well beyond the 25-mile restriction, pushing all the way to the outskirts of Beirut. This unauthorized expansion of the conflict led to the encirclement and heavy bombardment of the Lebanese capital, where the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was besieged.213

Beyond the territorial overreach, Sharon’s actions—including the strategic decision to allow the Phalangist militia into the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps—resulted in massacres that drew international condemnation and led to an official Israeli inquiry, which found Sharon indirectly responsible and unfit to remain as defense minister.21