Israel’s military has carried out more than 500 operations across southern Lebanon in the two months since it agreed to a ceasefire with Hizbollah, with locals bracing for more destruction as Israeli troops plan to delay their withdrawal.
Israel has conducted regular attacks since the ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group came into effect on November 27 after more than a year of conflict.
Non-profit group ACLED has counted 515 operations from the start of the ceasefire through January 17. These include air and drone strikes, as well as more than 206 instances of property destruction in 39 villages. At least 37 people have been killed, according to a Financial Times tally.
According to the truce, Israel was due by Sunday to pull its forces out of Lebanon and Hizbollah was to move its weapons north of the Litani river, which runs up to 30km from the de facto border, to be replaced by the Lebanese Armed Forces. But Israel’s government said on Friday its forces would remain in Lebanon beyond the deadline, with officials discussing a 30-day extension.
For residents of Lebanese border communities — many of whom have been unable to return — the prospect of continued Israeli occupation leaves them uncertain about when they can go home, and what they will find when they do.
“They’ve exploited the opportunity that the ceasefire provides,” Mohammad Srour, the mayor of Aita el-Chaab, said of Israeli destruction in his border village. “Before the ceasefire they were shelling with artillery and air strikes. But after the ceasefire they entered the village on the ground and the bigger part of the destruction came after.”
Some villagers are losing patience and thinking of returning on Sunday regardless of the risks. “Whatever happens, happens,” said Najib Hussein Halawi, a local official in Kfar Kila, another community whose inhabitants have been displaced. “There’s a lot of danger but what can you do? Sit there and shut up?”
Israeli officials say their actions are in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, and they are continuing to act because Hizbollah still has operatives and infrastructure in the area, while the LAF has yet to deploy in sufficient numbers to keep militants out.
Unable to return to his village, Srour has sought refuge further north, but he has been in contact with family and friends who returned to inspect the damage.
“Aita is a disaster,” he said of the village, which remains under Israeli occupation near the border, the UN-demarcated “Blue Line” that separates the countries. He said most houses had been damaged, with infrastructure bulldozed and everything from houses of worship to schools wiped off the map.
Hizbollah has warned Israel not to test its “patience”, and last month launched rockets towards Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms territory over what it called “repeated” ceasefire violations.
Lebanon’s new president Joseph Aoun also said this month that “bombarding houses and destroying border villages completely contradicts the ceasefire”. The UN peacekeeping force this month cited Israeli bulldozing of a LAF observation tower and a UN border marker as “a flagrant violation”. The Israeli military said the episode had been a mistake.
The IDF denied violating the ceasefire, and said that its actions in Lebanon were in “strict adherence” with international law and the agreement. It accused Hizbollah of breaching the ceasefire “hundreds of times”, and using civilian infrastructure for military purposes.
“These operations are defensive and necessary measures aimed at neutralising immediate dangers to Israel’s security,” it said.
On Thursday it said Hizbollah had used Aita to “store weapons and as a base to fire hundreds of rockets and anti-tank missiles into Israel” and that troops carried out operations to “remove threats”. It said they found more than 30 weapons caches, with arms stored in “residential buildings, courtyards, kindergartens, and basements”.
Locals say Israeli demolitions are a daily fact. Images captured by people around Naqoura, another border village, in December and early January show Israeli bulldozers apparently tearing down houses.
The LAF entered Naqoura on January 7 but Abbas Awada, the mayor, said residents were waiting for the army to announce it had removed all unexploded ordnance before returning.
Before the ceasefire was agreed, Israeli forces had already systematically destroyed buildings near the border. While they have withdrawn from more than a dozen villages along the west and centre of the border, they remain in most of the eastern section.
Local business owner Musa Hayouk lost his home, along with a chicken farm and lumber yard, in Aita shortly after the ceasefire began. Having already fled the town to Beirut’s southern suburbs, he saw the destruction via images from other residents who briefly returned to inspect the village.
Israel’s operation amounted to collective punishment on residents regardless of whether they were linked to Hizbollah, Hayouk said: “Their goals are well known, and we understand them.”
The conflict started after Hizbollah began firing towards Israel following Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack in southern Israel. A year of cross-border fire escalated dramatically when Israel launched a ground invasion and devastating offensive against Hizbollah in October last year.
More than 4,000 people in Lebanon and 140 Israelis have been killed in the conflict. Some 1mn people have been displaced in Lebanon and 60,000 in Israel.
Ramzi Kaiss, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the presence of Hizbollah military infrastructure did not justify many of Israel’s actions under international law.
“Even if there are military objectives in those villages, such as tunnels used by Hizbollah, there are serious questions raised as to whether that level of destruction was necessary,” he said. “Entire border villages, contrary to what some Israeli officials would like to claim, cannot be considered military objectives.”
Some of the most intense demolitions have been in Halawi’s village, Kfar Kila. “There are explosions every day,” Halawi said. He estimated that much of the damage happened after the ceasefire. Israel was “crossing a lot of boundaries”, he said.
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