Located on a hill bordering the border with Israel, Mhaibib, one of the smallest villages in Jebel Amil, southern Lebanon, became famous on October 16 when images of its dynamiting went viral around the world. In a video posted on social media, Israeli soldiers filmed themselves exulting at the simultaneous explosion of houses. Mhaibib was the first village to suffer controlled explosions after the start of the Israeli ground offensive on 1Ahem October. Aïta El-Chaab, Blida, Meiss El-Jabal or even Ramiyé: the list of villages destroyed in this way grew as the troops of the Jewish State advanced, penetrating, in some places, more than 5 kilometers into the border strip.
This destruction, combined with thirteen months of aerial bombardment in response to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Israel, devastated southern Lebanon. An analysis of the infographic service Worldcreated from data provided by researchers Corey Scher of New York University and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, based on satellite observations from Sentinel-1 and building footprint information from Microsoft , which maps buildings around the world, said. As of November 23, 9,644 buildings damaged or destroyed in border towns, or 38% of the total buildings.
A “limited offensive”
Kfar Kila and Aïta El-Chaab, two-thirds demolished, are the two towns most affected by the war. A dozen more are 40% or even 50% destroyed, such as Dhaïra, Odaisseh, Ramiyé, Teir Harfa and Yarine. The map of destruction is superimposed on that of the Israeli ground advance. “With what the Israelis call a “limited offensive,” we saw villages completely destroyed, not by airstrikes, but by booby-trapped houses. They destroy everything: old and new neighborhoods, houses more than 200 years old and just 5 years old, tourist and religious sites, mausoleums and cemeteries.laments Hussein Chaabane, an investigative journalist with the Lebanese legal defense NGO Legal Agenda.
The magnitude of this destruction has raised fears in Lebanon that Israel will try to create a buffer zone, as it has done along its border with Gaza and in the north of this enclave, or prevent inhabitants from returning to live in the area. border strip. The Israeli military has defended itself by saying it is carrying out limited, localized raids against Hezbollah targets and its infrastructure located in cities, including tunnels that run under houses and weapons caches in buildings. The Israeli government’s stated goal is to move Hezbollah as far as possible from the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon, to allow the 60,000 displaced Israelis from the north of the country to return to their homes.
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