New rolls of fabric litter the concrete ruins where Sobhi Hamdan’s textile factory once stood, before the Israeli army blew it up.
Lavender, azure and light pink, some still wrapped in plastic, the textiles' bright colours stand in contrast to the scene of desolation in Meiss El Jabal, a southern Lebanese border town shattered by Israeli attacks.
Like much of Lebanon’s deep south, where roads are lined with destruction, shattered houses, collapsed mosques and broken water pumps, Meiss El Jabal in Nabatieh governorate bears the scars of 13 months of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. This supposedly ended with a ceasefire in November last year.
But the factory's ruins are not technically remnants of the war − the building was blown up months after the ceasefire was agreed, in July, during an overnight Israeli infiltration into Lebanese territory.
“I came to rebuild my factory, which I had found in ruins when we came back to our village, thinking that peace had returned,” said Mr Hamdan, as he walked through what remained of his two-storey building − scattered, ruined merchandise and piles of rubble.
“And suddenly Israel attacked again. How could I have known?”
About 20 families lived off the factory, which supplied mattresses, blankets and cushions across Lebanon. “I lost everything,” the 66-year-old said. “The building, the equipment, the merchandise, my house − it’s a decade of work gone.”
The loud buzzing of a drone cut the interview short, and Mr Hamdan hurried away, under the looming threat of the killer device.
He is not an exception. Lebanese officials and human rights experts told The National that Israel has been systematically targeting reconstruction efforts since the ceasefire was agreed, in an effort to carve out a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
Based on data provided by Public Works Studio, which initiates research projects and has been monitoring daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon, classifying them by location, target and weapon, The National was able to identify 43 Israeli attacks on reconstruction equipment, 32 attacks on prefabricated buildings and seven attacks on factories since the ceasefire was agreed.
The data also shows four Israeli attacks on engineers and civil defence workers inspecting damage and carrying out work.
In one case, Israeli raids targeted six heavy equipment yards, killing one person and destroying and burning around 300 pieces of machinery, reported Lebanon's state media.
Hashem Haider, president of the Council for the South, which manages reconstruction efforts, told The National that several bulldozers and construction vehicles used by his team had been “directly” hit, mainly in the western and central sectors of the southern border. “The purpose is clear, preventing people from returning, and creating a buffer zone,” he said.
Those Israeli strikes “are illegal, these are clearly not military targets”, Nadim Houry, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative think tank and former director of Human Rights Watch in Lebanon, told The National.
“They are a violation of international law, of the ceasefire agreement and of Resolution 1701,” said Mr Houry.
Resolution 1701 is the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, and upon which the current ceasefire is built.
On Sunday, Israel escalated its attacks and killed Hezbollah's chief of staff in a strike on an apartment building in a busy area of Beirut. It came hours after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Beirut stands ready to engage in internationally sponsored negotiations to secure an agreement that would end Israeli attacks.
For Mr Houry, Israel’s actions in south of Lebanon align with its new security doctrine of creating buffer zones in the region − notably in southern Syria, where it has occupied swathes of land since the fall of the Assad regime last December, and in Gaza, with the so-called yellow line, which marks the border of Israeli-controlled territory in the strip.
Graveyard of bulldozers
The National was able to verify some of these attacks on the ground. In Deir Seryan, also in Nabatieh governorate, The National saw a dozen vehicles all completely destroyed, the result of an Israeli strike in August that turned a garage into a graveyard of bulldozers.
On a previous trip to the south, The National found a newly built cafe in the town of Houla reduced to scorched remains. Locals said it had been targeted by a drone just days after the owner finished the building work, injuring one person.
Meiss El Jabal's mayor Habib Kabalan said Israel has destroyed 10 bulldozers there. “How can there be a ceasefire if one side is firing?” he asked.
Like him, Lebanese officials, diplomats and experts have denounced a ceasefire “in name only”, in which Israel strikes at will, while Hezbollah has not fired a single bullet in retaliation.
Peacekeepers have also recorded dozens of Israeli air strikes in different locations of south Lebanon, in breach of the ceasefire.
Over the past year, Israel has violated Lebanon's sovereignty thousands of times, saying it is striking Hezbollah targets. These violations include more than 7,300 Israeli breaches of Lebanese airspace, and 2,400 ground activities within Lebanon and around 100 strikes north of the Blue Line, according to Unifil, the UN peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon.
According to UN experts, Israeli attacks have killed more than 100 civilians since the ceasefire.
'Occupation without troops'
Ahmad Faqih used to work in construction. Before the war, he used his excavator to open roads and level land for property developments and agricultural plots. Business was good, he said.
After the war, he had been using his equipment to clear debris from destroyed homes at the owners’ request. In return, he would collect whatever materials he could salvage − such as iron, copper and aluminium − and sell them.
But last month, while he was working on a house in Rab Thalathin, in southern Lebanon, he heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead. An hour after he left, an air strike shook the town. The next day, he found his equipment completely destroyed. “When they hit it, they finished us off completely,” he said.
The excavator, which he bought for $45,000 and is still paying off, was his only means of making a living. Mr Faqih had to return to his ruined house, despite unreliable electricity supplies and limited access to water, as he cannot afford to rent elsewhere.
The money he earned from debris removal helped him patch up parts of his house. “Now we can’t fix the house any more, we can’t … Thank God we at least managed to register my son in school, that’s the most important thing,” he said.
Israeli warning shots, strikes and occasional bombing notices have drawn a mental map for southern residents of what they are allowed to do on their own land.
“For example, in Odaisseh, when people come to fetch water, it’s OK, but when they tried to rebuild, they were intimidated with warning shots,” Mr Faqih explained.
“No one told us officially. It's our understanding on the ground,” he added.
But what is allowed one day can be off-limits the next, instilling a constant sense of fear among residents. Mr Faqih said he had been clearing rubble in his village for a month without any issues. “If they had sent warning shots, we would have stopped − better than to get blown up. But they didn't.”
Mr Houry said the creation of a de facto buffer zone in southern Lebanon amounts to “occupation without troops”.
“It’s a way of claiming territory without putting soldiers on the ground. Residents are now too afraid to set foot on their own land, even though there are no such rules on paper,” he said.
“But the buffer zone is enforced instead by fire, by drones and by the bombing maps Israel has been circulating on social media.”
Israel’s ultimate intention
Mr Kabal said Meiss El Jabal used to be the economic heart of the south, with more than 250 establishments, some of the biggest in the country, all of them now destroyed.
The mayor said nearly 80 per cent of the town’s destruction happened after the ceasefire came into effect. Rights groups say Israel carried out a large-scale destruction campaign outside of combat, most of it during a 60-day withdrawal period granted by the agreement.
Each day that passes with no reconstruction amounts to immense economic losses that the cash-strapped country can't afford.
But a way out of the stalemate remains distant. Israel insists it will keep striking Lebanon until Hezbollah is fully disarmed, dismissing Lebanese authorities’ unprecedented efforts as insufficient.
Hezbollah says it won’t discuss disarmament until Israel stops striking and withdraws from the five occupied positions. But the militant group has not obstructed the Lebanese army’s push to dismantle its infrastructure south of the Litani River.
The main question is about Israel’s ultimate intention, Mr Houry said. Are the strikes aimed at creating a temporary buffer zone to force negotiations with Hezbollah, or a push for a permanently demilitarised zone in the south – like the one Israel is lobbying for in southern Syria?
“In any case, Lebanon must organise itself so as not to lose sovereignty over these areas, through active and public diplomacy … so that people are not left to their fate,” he added.
In Meiss El Jabal, as in much of the south, Mr Hamdan said the state has failed him. “I don’t regret rebuilding my factory, I would do it again. But officials could at least have acknowledged us,” he said. “No one even came to say hello.”
