Looking at a satellite image of the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, now a jumble of rubble, wrecked buildings and torn-up roads, Abbas Tanoukhi recalled, without hesitation, the location of every building, school, hospital and religious landmark that once made up his beloved hometown.
“And look here, that was my house,” he said, pointing on the map to what is now a pile of concrete. His home is among the roughly 100,000 civilian structures in Lebanon that have been destroyed or damaged by Israel since the war resumed, official data shows.
As he zoomed in on the image, a heavy vehicle became visible in the wasteland of rubble, its crane inching towards one of the few buildings still standing – though likely not for much longer. “That’s what they do,” he said. “They demolish building after building.”
The Khiam he knew and grew up in is gone, destroyed by Israeli forces. “They’ve left nothing. Nothing,” he said.
Based on legal analysis and exclusive data, as well as interviews with officials and residents, The National has examined how Israel is carrying out what legal experts describe as “wanton destruction” in southern Lebanon, particularly within the “yellow line” that marks occupied territory.
Wanton destruction of civilian property in the absence of military necessity is a war crime under the laws of conflict.
The yellow line, proclaimed by Israel shortly after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect in April, includes at least 50 border towns, including Khiam. Beneath what it calls a “forward defence line” against Hezbollah threats, Israel has effectively occupied at least five per cent of Lebanese territory. With no timetable for the withdrawal of its troops, there are fears of long-term occupation.
Israel has barred access to the area, attacking and killing those who attempt to enter, including journalists, rescue workers and residents. Out of public view, Israeli troops have carried out a widespread campaign of destruction in the area, using controlled detonations and bulldozers.
War resumed in Lebanon on March 2, when Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel in support of its main backer, Iran, and in retaliation for Israel’s daily breaches of a 2024 ceasefire. Since then, Israel has launched a massive air and ground campaign, which the April 17 ceasefire has done little to curb, except in Beirut, which has largely been spared strikes in recent weeks.
Since the conflict reignited, Israel's campaign has killed more than 2,860 people in Lebanon, including 575 since the ceasefire was declared, and injured 8,730, according to Lebanese health authorities.
Mass destruction
Legal precedent from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia identifies three elements of wanton destruction – large-scale damage, the absence of military necessity and deliberate intent or reckless disregard for likely consequences. The evidence documented by The National in Lebanon points to all three.
Israel’s strategy in the south is a "clear example of wanton destruction", Nadim Houry, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative, told The National.
Firstly, there is the staggering degree of devastation. Data shared exclusively with The National by Lebanon’s Southern Council sheds light on the massive scale of damage inflicted on civilian infrastructure.
More than 27,000 homes, 182 public buildings, 35 schools and nine historical landmarks have been completely flattened since March 2. In total, nearly 100,000 civilian buildings have been affected to some extent, either destroyed or partially damaged, the data shows.
Hisham Haidar, head of the council, denounced what he described as Israel’s “clear destructive intent”. While acknowledging that some targets may have had military relevance, he said most of the destruction affected civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and public utilities.
The Oxfam charity told The National that, working with the South Lebanon Water Establishment, it identified the destruction of at least 1,100 solar energy panels, as well as electrical components serving 26 water pumping stations in southern Lebanon.
Much of the destruction has not yet been assessed because Israel has barred access to the yellow line, although footage filmed by Israeli troops shows widespread devastation.
No military necessity
Legal experts told The National that Israel’s sweeping destruction of civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon is not justified by military objectives, fulfilling another of the legal elements set out by the tribunal.
“There's actually been no proof that there is military necessity that would require them to destroy solar panels, that would destroy all civilian infrastructures, schools, hospitals, water towers, electric grids,” Mr Houry said. “One clear indication of the lack of military necessity is that some of the largest intentional demolitions of entire neighbourhoods have occurred during ceasefire periods."
Satellite imagery shows destruction within the yellow line accelerated during the ceasefire. Since the truce came into effect, the monitoring group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) has recorded more than 100 destructive attacks on homes, roads, bridges, religious sites and electricity infrastructure.
In Khiam, satellite imagery from May 6 reviewed by The National shows the medical centre of the Amel Association has been flattened, as well as a pharmacy and a sports club.
Bassel Doueik, a Lebanon researcher at ACLED, said Israeli forces used the ceasefire to conduct the “systematic destruction of property" in southern Lebanon. “There has been a sense within the Israeli establishment that it needs to create a multilayered buffer zone in the south,” he added.
During many trips to southern Lebanon, The National repeatedly witnessed patterns of destruction affecting civilian buildings and key infrastructure, including water and electricity, extending beyond the buffer zone.
Marwan Issa, a research and policy adviser at Oxfam, told The National that the charity documented damage to at least 20 water infrastructure sites, “a large portion of which is outside the yellow line".
The International Committee for the Red Cross, for its part, documented damage to 10 water stations and networks across Lebanon, including two it directly supported, as well as one electrical station in southern Lebanon.
The sites documented by the Red Cross are mostly insidethe yellow line, meaning humanitarian organisations cannot access them.
In a written statement to The National, the organisation said the damage to these 10 sites alone had disrupted access to water for more than half a million people.
Beyond frontline villages, much of southern Lebanon may be uninhabitable for years.
Deliberate intent to destroy
Senior Israeli officials have been clear about their intention to raze villages in southern Lebanon – the third element constituting “wanton destruction”. Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to destroy all homes in villages near the border, invoking what he called “the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model” used in the Gaza war.
After the ceasefire was announced, he repeated his pledge, saying the “destruction of houses in the Lebanese contact line villages” would continue, describing them as “terrorist outposts”.
He also said southern Lebanese residents would not be allowed to return to their homes until the safety of people in northern Israel was guaranteed, without specifying when that would be or what criteria would determine it.
“Under international humanitarian law, you can’t just go about deliberately destroying civilian property, be that homes, solar panels or trees, on the basis of broad or abstract goals like 'security'," Kristine Beckerle, deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, told The National.
She added that declaring a “buffer zone” did not give the Israeli military “the right to demolish or destroy someone’s home, let alone the right to blow up a lot of someone’s homes and a lot of other essential civilian property across a broad swathe of Lebanese territory".
Lebanese officials have firmly denounced the creation of a buffer zone in the south and say they are aware of its ultimate goal – preventing people from returning home. Mr Haidar said Israel’s destruction of the south aims to “permanently prevent residents from returning, or at least make their return extremely difficult".
Even if Israeli troops withdraw, recovery efforts will be long and costly. He estimated the damage from the current conflict and the 2023 to 2024 war at about $10 billion and added that losses beyond property destruction, particularly in agriculture, could push the total bill to at least $20 billion.
But Mr Tanoukhi is defiant. “We are not victims. We will return and rebuild, with all our strength, our steadfastness and our people,” he said. “This is not inshallah. This is certainty. We will return.”
