Many south Lebanon communities were already devastated in the 2024 war, but satellite imagery shows that recent IDF demolitions have caused even greater destruction. An Amnesty International investigator: 'This is basically the same pattern that we documented back in Gaza'

Haaretz editorial        5 May 2026

Rescue personnel clear rubble from buildings destroyed in the Lebanese town of Habboush, following Israeli strikes, Nabatieh Governorate, Lebanon, on Saturday. Credit: Stringer/ REUTERS

Israel has razed more than two dozen Lebanese border towns and villages since hostilities with Hezbollah renewed in early March, a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery shows.

The report, published Sunday, reveals the extent of destruction across south Lebanon, where Israel Defense Forces demolitions have reduced entire villages to rubble. Shi'ite villages, such as Bint Jbeil, were hit hardest. This religious sect, of which Hezbollah is a part, makes up the majority of the population in the south.

Verified footage and European Space Agency satellite imagery also show damage to government offices, schools, hospitals and religious sites. All this has continued during a U.S.-mediated cease-fire signed by Israel and Lebanon in late April.

"This is basically the same pattern that we documented back in Gaza," Barbara Marcolini, a visual investigator for Amnesty International, told the New York Times. "It is a strategy that they have, and they have been doing this consistently throughout the region, Marcolini said of the IDF's actions, comparing them to Israel's previous war in southern Lebanon in 2024.

(Note: Click on URL to get a replay of the wholesale destruction of the villages in originl article. Ed)

Many communities in south Lebanon were already damaged in the 2024 war. More than 10,000 structures, including homes, mosques and parks, were damaged or destroyed, according to Amnesty International data. Today, the extent of devastation is even greater, with large swaths of rubble visible in satellite imagery. 

"I feel like I am going to break from anger and sadness," Nabil Sunbul, a 67-year-old who worked in a bakery in Bint Jbeil, told The Times. Sunbul has since fled to Beirut, Lebanon's capital, taking a few belongings with him.

Fatima Abdallah, a 46-year-old mother of five from the town of Houla, was also displaced from her home and is now living in a tent inside a stadium in Beirut. "Our home was the fruit of our lives' work," Abdallah said. 

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In late March, Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that all homes in Lebanon's border villages "will be destroyed according to the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model in Gaza." The move, he said, is intended "to permanently remove border threats" to Israel's northern residents. He added that at the end of the operation, Israeli troops will remain in a "security zone" inside Lebanon to defend against anti-tank missiles and to maintain security control of the area south of the Litani River.

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