In the historic heart of Bint Jbeil, a 400-year-old Great Mosque once stood as a testament to the city\u2019s enduring cultural memory. Today, it lies in ruins, alongside more than 1,500 buildings systematically destroyed by Israeli forces in an escalating military campaign in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Through the meticulous analysis of satellite imagery and open-source intelligence, a visual investigation by Al Jazeera Arabic\u2019s fact-checking team has revealed a deliberate Israeli policy to render southern Lebanon permanently uninhabitable.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The border villages and towns of southern Lebanon are witnessing a relentless military escalation beyond conventional warfare. Israeli operations have expanded into a policy of systematically \u201cwiping out\u201d civilian homes, residential neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure, analysis of the map shows.<\/p>\n This pattern has drawn direct comparisons to the Israeli military\u2019s brutal tactics in the Gaza Strip, which lies in ruins. Most of Gaza\u2019s 2.3 million people remain forcibly displaced.<\/p>\n Legal experts, analysts and local officials warn that the ultimate objective is the \u201cemptying of residential geography\u201d, carving out a depopulated \u201cbuffer zone\u201d at the forward edge of the border that permanently prevents displaced residents from returning and establishes a violently enforced demographic reality on the ground.<\/p>\n Israel says it wants to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to prevent attacks from Hezbollah.<\/p>\n Mohammad Bazzi, the mayor of Bint Jbeil, told Al Jazeera that the extensive destruction reflects an organised campaign targeting civilian architecture and identity. He noted with alarm that these systematic demolitions have proceeded unabated even after the announcement of a ceasefire, suggesting a long-term strategy of territorial erasure rather than immediate tactical necessity.<\/p>\n Even before the current conflict erupted in March, Israel was violating the November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah almost daily, killing hundreds.<\/p>\n Bint Jbeil has emerged as the epicentre of this devastation, functioning as a concentrated model of Israel\u2019s border strategy. By verifying and geolocating visual evidence, Al Jazeera\u2019s digital investigation team tracked 14 distinct videos published by Israeli soldiers and journalists between April 16 and 24.<\/p>\n Translation: Golani Brigade forces destroyed more than 50 terror infrastructures in recent days: **Watch the massive explosion \u2013 of dozens of terror buildings** Little secret-My friend returned from there, he tells me that the whole idea of a ceasefire, it\u2019s b******* they keep blowing up houses in ever greater quantities.<\/em><\/p>\n The resulting map of the blasts exposes a highly concentrated campaign of destruction. The data reveals that 93 percent of the documented demolitions \u2013 13 out of the 14 incidents \u2013 occurred within the Nabatieh governorate.<\/p>\n Half of these catastrophic explosions were focused squarely within the Bint Jbeil district, systematically flattening entire blocks in the towns of Bint Jbeil, Beit Lif, and Ainata. Another 43 percent of the blasts targeted towns administratively tied to Nabatieh, such as Khiam, Kfar Kila, and Rab el-Thalathine, while a single significant demolition was recorded further west in the coastal town of Naqoura.<\/p>\n These figures underscore a methodical blueprint to dismantle civilian infrastructure. Aerial data and satellite imagery collected up to late April reveal a staggering reduction in Bint Jbeil\u2019s urban mass. According to Bazzi, more than 70 percent of the city has been destroyed and 20 percent partially damaged, bringing the affected urban footprint to more than 90 percent.<\/p>\n Approximately 3,000 housing units have been levelled. The demolitions have been heavily concentrated in the city\u2019s commercial centre and its oldest, most historic neighbourhoods, including Ain al-Saghira and the Old Mosque Quarter.<\/p>\n The destruction has stretched far beyond residential buildings to the city\u2019s eastern and western outskirts, targeting power stations, water networks, schools and hospitals, including Salah Ghandour Hospital.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Bazzi added that agricultural land has been razed and subjected to incendiary weapons and white phosphorus munitions, describing the scorched-earth tactics as a \u201ccompound crime\u201d under international humanitarian law, which strictly prohibits the intentional destruction of civilian property and livelihoods.<\/p>\n Translation: The Israeli army sets fire to the homes of residents in villages in southern Lebanon.<\/em><\/p>\n Israeli military reports openly highlight the strategic importance of Bint Jbeil and the neighbouring town of Maroun al-Ras. Sitting at high altitudes, these areas overlook illegal northern Israeli settlements such as Avivim, Yir\u2019on, Dovev, Malkia and Dishon. The Israeli military command views absolute control over these vantage points as crucial for field superiority and for directing artillery fire deeper into Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n The Israeli military recently announced that its 98th Division had completed the encirclement of the Bint Jbeil area as part of \u201cOperation Northern Arrows\u201d. The stated goal is to neutralise the threat of antitank missiles and push back Hezbollah\u2019s Radwan Force. Currently, five military divisions are deployed deep in the area, tasked with dismantling Hezbollah\u2019s subterranean and surface infrastructure.<\/p>\n Translation: 98th Division Commander Tal Gai Levy publishes a photo of the Bint Jbeil stadium where Nasrallah delivered the Spider\u2019s Web speech in 2000: \u201cThere was someone here who spoke with hatred and boasted about threads and spiders. Today, that man no longer exists, nor does the stadium, and his words are worth nothing. *Bint Jbeil 2024: Our forces control the area, destroy terror infrastructure and terrorists\u201d*.<\/em><\/p>\n Israeli media coverage frequently evokes the 2006 war\u2019s brutal battles in Bint Jbeil, where eight Golani Brigade\u00a0soldiers were killed, framing the extensive destruction of the city in 2026 as an act of military retribution.<\/p>\n Hezbollah had claimed victory in 2006 as it had prevented Israel from achieving its war goals.<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently stated that his forces were continuing to strike Hezbollah mercilessly and were close to concluding the battle in Bint Jbeil. Netanyahu confirmed he had issued clear, unequivocal instructions to the military to continue expanding the security belt and to intensify their fortified presence within the newly created buffer zone.<\/p>\n In direct response to the expanding demolitions, Hezbollah released a defiant video message in Arabic and Hebrew, pledging to thwart Israel\u2019s efforts to establish a buffer zone over the ruins of southern Lebanese communities.<\/p>\n \u201cAny security belt, no matter its depth, will prevent our activation when we decide to do so,\u201d the group warned. The broadcast served as a clear reminder of Hezbollah\u2019s intact arsenal of rocket launchers, drones and precision-guided missiles.<\/p>\n The video featured a previous statement by Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, who declared that illegal Israeli settlements \u201cwill not be safe, even if the Israelis enter any area in Lebanon\u201d. Hezbollah fighters continue to launch precise, deadly strikes using missiles and explosive drones against Israeli troop gatherings operating within the ruins of the border villages.<\/p>\n For the 2,000 families forcibly displaced from Bint Jbeil, the loss of their homes, heritage and livelihoods is absolute. Yet, despite the destruction of historic mosques and neighbourhoods, the resolve of its residents remains unshaken.<\/p>\n Bazzi urged immediate international intervention to halt the blatant violations of international law, maintaining that Israel\u2019s attempt at erasure would ultimately fail to uproot the people from their land.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the historic heart of Bint Jbeil, a 400-year-old Great Mosque once stood as a testament to the city\u2019s enduring cultural memory. Today, it lies in ruins, alongside more than 1,500 buildings systematically destroyed by Israeli forces in an escalating military campaign in southern Lebanon. Through the meticulous analysis of satellite imagery and open-source intelligence, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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