Israel’s path to destruction in southern Lebanon raises concerns about buffer zone

BEIRUT (AP) — It’s on a hill just a short walk from Beirut. Israeli border, small south Lebanese Ramya village has almost disappeared from the map. Satellite images show similar scenes in nearby villages. Hills once covered with houses are now a gray smudge of rubble.

Israeli fighter jets and ground forces Blow away the traces of destruction Last month I traveled to southern Lebanon. According to Israel, the purpose is to debilitate hezbollah militant grouppushed away from the border, ending more than a year of Hezbollah bombardment of northern Israel.

flat UN peacekeeping forces and the Lebanese army In the south, it has come under Israeli shelling, raising questions about whether it will be able to remain in place.

Over 1 million people I ran away from the gunfiremuch of the south was emptied. Some experts say Israel may be aiming to create a depopulated buffer zone, and this is its strategy. Already deployed along the border with Gaza.

An Associated Press analysis of data collected by satellite imagery and mapping experts shows the extent of the destruction across 11 villages bordering the border.

Israeli military says shelling is needed to destroy it hezbollah The group is said to be embedded within the town in tunnels and other infrastructure. The explosion also destroyed homes and neighborhoods; sometimes whole villageswhere families have lived for generations.

Israel has said it aims to push Hezbollah back far enough so that its people can safely return to their homes in the north, but Israeli officials say they are trying to ensure that Hezbollah is kept away from the border in the long term. He admits that there are no concrete plans. It is a key focus of the next effort by the United States. broker a ceasefire.

Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, said Israel’s immediate objective is not to create a buffer zone, but the situation could change.

“Maybe we have no choice but to stay there until we can get a deal that promises that Hezbollah will not come back into the zone,” she said.

path of destruction

army Pushed into southern Lebanon on October 1stsupported by heavy shelling that has since intensified.

The Associated Press, using satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs PBC, identified 11 enumerated villages within 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) of the Lebanon-Israel border. All of these villages are within four miles (6.5 kilometers) of the Lebanese-Israeli border and were severely damaged in the past month by either airstrikes or the detonation of planted explosive devices. Israeli soldier.

An analysis found that the hardest hit villages in the south were those closest to the border, with between 100 and 500 buildings likely destroyed or damaged in each village, according to the State University of New York Graduate Center. said experts Corey Sher of the University of California and Jamon Van Der Hoek of Oregon State University. Damage assessment.

In Ramya, just one building remains, barely atop a hill in the center of the village, after a controlled explosion that Israeli soldiers were shown carrying out themselves in a video posted on social media. In the neighboring town of Aita al-Shaab, a village heavily influenced by Hezbollah, shelling reduced the top of the hill, where the buildings were most densely packed, to a gray wasteland of rubble.

In other villages, damage is more limited. In some places, shelling left scars on blocks of houses. In other cases, certain houses were destroyed, but neighboring houses remained unscathed.

Another controlled explosion flattened most of the Odeisa villagean explosion so powerful that an earthquake warning was issued in Israel.

Lebanese Philharmonic conductor Lubnan Baalbaki can be seen on video of the explosion in disbelief as his family home, which housed the art collection and library that his father spent years building, was destroyed. I was watching it.

“This house was a project and a dream for my parents,” he told The Associated Press. Her parents’ graves in the garden are now gone.

Asked whether the aim was to create a buffer zone, the Israeli military said it was conducting “localized, limited and targeted attacks against Hezbollah targets based on accurate intelligence”. said. The newspaper said Hezbollah had “deliberately planted” weapons in homes and villages.

Israeli journalist Danny Kushmaro also helped blow up a house that the military claims was being used to store Hezbollah ammunition. In the TV corner, Kushmaro and the soldiers count down before pressing a button, causing a massive explosion.

Videos posted online by the Israeli military and individual soldiers show Israeli forces planting flags on Lebanese soil. Still, Israel has not built any bases or maintained a permanent presence in southern Lebanon. Troops appear to be moving back and forth across the border, sometimes under heavy artillery fire from Hezbollah.

October is Deadliest month of 2024 for Israeli militaryabout 60 soldiers died.

Attacks on UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army

The bombardment was interrupted by Israeli attacks on UN and Lebanese forces, which under international law are supposed to maintain peace in the region. Israel has long complained that Hezbollah’s infrastructure development across the south is not hampered by its presence.

Israel denies targeting either group.

The Lebanese army said at least 11 soldiers were killed in eight Israeli attacks while stationed or assisting in evacuations.

The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said: Troops and infrastructure damaged At least 30 times since late September, about 20 of them have accused Israeli forces of firing or acting, “seven of which were clearly intentional,” it said.

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said a rocket believed to have been fired by Hezbollah or its allies hit UNIFIL’s headquarters in Nakoula on Tuesday, causing minor injuries.

UNIFIL has refused to withdraw from southern Lebanon despite calls from other countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu For them to go.

Experts have warned that the situation could change if peacekeepers come under more intense attacks.

Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group said that “when we go from a United Nations that causes casualties to a United Nations that actually causes deaths,” some countries contributing troops “say, ‘Enough is enough’ and cancel the mission.” We may see it start to collapse.”

The future of the territory is uncertain

International ceasefire efforts appear to be focused on implementing UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

The document specified that Israeli forces would withdraw completely from Lebanon, while UNIFIL, rather than the Lebanese army and Hezbollah, would have an exclusive armed presence in an area about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border.

However, this resolution was not fully implemented. Hezbollah has never left the border area, and Lebanon accuses Israel of continuing to occupy small areas of the country and conducting frequent military flights over its territory.

During a recent visit to Beirut, U.S. Special Envoy Amos Hochstein said a new agreement is needed to implement Resolution 1701.

Israel may be trying to pressure an agreement through the destruction it has caused in southern Lebanon.

Yossi Yehoshua, a military correspondent for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, said the military would “use operational results to encourage Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and intervening countries to accept an end[to the war]on favorable terms.” “We need to further strengthen this,” he wrote. For Israel. ”

Some Lebanese fear that Israel will occupy parts of the south 25 years after it ended its occupation there.

Mark Dow, a member of the Lebanese parliament who has criticized both Hezbollah and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, said Israel was trying to undermine Hezbollah’s capabilities and turn the Lebanese people “against their will to resist Israeli aggression.” He said he believed there was.

Gowan, of the International Crisis Group, said one of the aims of resolution 1701 was to give the Lebanese army enough credibility in the south to be seen as the “legitimate defender” rather than Hezbollah.

“If they become the (Israeli) gendarmerie in south Lebanon, it evaporates,” he said.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Loujain Joe in Beirut contributed to this report.

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