Tel Aviv: Israel is said to have demolished at least three villages in southern Lebanon over the last two weeks.
The Israeli military demolished the villages by rigging homes with explosives and then detonating them in large-scale remote-controlled explosions, the Guardian reported. It reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military itself and circulated on social media that showed these mass detonations taking place in the border villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan.
While Lebanese media outlets have reported similar mass detonations in additional border villages, satellite imagery to confirm those specific claims was not immediately available.
The demolitions followed a public call by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, for the destruction of “all houses” in the border villages, modelled on the approach used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza, the Guardian reported.
In southern Gaza’s Rafah, the Israeli military destroyed 90 per cent of homes.The Guardian notes that the same tactic of large-scale destruction of civilian housing in Gaza has been described by academics as “domicide” – the deliberate, systematic destruction and damage of civilian homes intended to make entire areas uninhabitable. Israel has faced accusations of genocide in Gaza over the use of this method.
Israel has conducted strikes and a ground invasion in Lebanon in response to rocket fire from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group. According to Lebanese media reports, Israeli strikes on the south of the country on Saturday killed 18 people. That brought the total death count from Israel’s operations in Lebanon since the war began to more than 2,000, as reported by NDTV.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said on Saturday that he wanted a peace deal with Lebanon that “will last for generations” — but the peace deal does not extend to Hezbollah which Israel continues to brand as a “terrorist organisation”.
The demolitions targeted Hezbollah infrastructure, including tunnels and military facilities that the group had allegedly embedded inside civilian homes, the Israeli military has repeatedly claimed.
Israel has announced it will occupy large areas of southern Lebanon and establish a “security zone” extending across the entire region up to the Litani River. Displaced residents will not be permitted to return until the safety of Israel’s northern cities is guaranteed. This has raised concerns about long-term displacement.
There is little possibility of the situation improving with Iran and the US failing to reach a deal on Sunday to end the wider conflict.
