Photo by: AFP

But the "star" attraction is dedicated to Mughnieh, and includes his desk, weapons and prayer mat, all on display in tribute to the "martyr." Mughnieh, who had a five-million-dollar bounty on his head, was on the most wanted lists of Israel and the United States after a string of bloody attacks in the 1980s and 1990s across the globe. The 45-year-old, dubbed "the Fox" for his ability to elude capture despite several reported efforts by US authorities to snare him, had plastic surgery to alter his features, Western intelligence services said. Mughnieh was allegedly behind the abduction of Western hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s as well as a plane hijacking and deadly bombings in Beirut and Buenos Aires. Western intelligence services suspected him of working directly for Iranian intelligence. His mother Amina Salame brought Mughnieh's youngest son, Jihad, to the exhibition's private opening on Friday, and together the pair paused in front of a display of the clothes the militia chief was wearing when he died. "It is the first time that I have seen my son's personal effects," she said, in reference to his years in hiding and claims he frequently travelled to Syria and other Arab countries using a host of aliases. His photos, as well as those of fighters firing rockets towards Israel, stand opposite pictures of dead and wounded Israeli soldiers. Others show weeping Israeli troops, mourning the loss of fallen comrades. "The Israeli army's apparent invincibility before the debacle became the butt of jokes among the residents of south Lebanon," said one of the event's organisers, asking not to be named.

Despite the brutal 34-day campaign, Israel failed in its aims of neutralising Hezbollah, halting rocket fire and recovering the captured soldiers, whose bodies were finally handed over in a prisoner swap in July.