Perched on a hill abutting the border with Israel, Mhaibib, one of the smallest villages of Jebel Amil, in southern Lebanon, became infamous on October 16 when images of its dynamiting went viral. of 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 1is 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 Hebrew State advanced, who penetrated, in places, more than 5 kilometers in the border strip.
This destruction, combined with thirteen months of aerial bombardments in response to Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel, devastated southern Lebanon. An analysis of the infographics service of Mondemade 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 information from Microsoft building footprint, which maps constructions around the world, counted, as of November 23, 9,644 buildings damaged or destroyed in border localities, or 38% of the total buildings.
A “limited offensive”
Two-thirds demolished, Kfar Kila and Aïta El-Chaab are the two localities most affected by the war. A dozen others 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 land 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 over 200 years old and those barely 5 years old, tourist and religious sites, mausoleums and cemeteries.deplores Hussein Chaabane, investigative journalist within the Lebanese legal defense NGO Legal Agenda.
The extent of this destruction has raised fears in Lebanon that Israel may seek to create a buffer zone, as it has done along its border with Gaza and in the north of this enclave, or to prevent inhabitants to return to live in the border strip. The Israeli army has defended itself, saying it is carrying out limited and localized raids against Hezbollah targets and its infrastructure located in cities, including tunnels running under houses and weapons caches in buildings. The stated objective of the Israeli government is to push Hezbollah back as far as possible from the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon, to allow the 60,000 Israelis displaced from the north of the country to return home.
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