The Israeli military extensively shelled the town of Deir Seryan in southern Lebanon on Friday after carrying out extensive demolitions overnight in Khiam, hours after a US official claimed Israel was ready to begin the lengthy withdrawal process from south Lebanon.
Successive explosions in the pivotal town of Khiam shook surrounding areas, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
Israel occupies dozens of southern Lebanese towns and villages and has carried out extensive demolitions, reducing them to rubble. This includes the destruction of what the Israeli military claims is Hezbollah infrastructure, as well as homes and civilian infrastructure.
When all-out war broke out yet again in early March between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group and political party, Khiam became a critical early battle that would eventually result in Israeli forces seizing the town – but only after intense ground fighting. While large chunks of the town were razed in the fighting, Israel has continued to destroy buildings in Khiam.
The town also carries symbolic value for Hezbollah: Khiam was the site of a notorious and brutal prison run by Israel's Lebanese proxies in south Lebanon during the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War.
While Israeli forces vacated the site during their withdrawal in 2000, Israel's military has since occupied Khiam again and is understood to have levelled the former prison.
Thus far, the Israeli military has refused to begin the withdrawal process from two pilot zones in south Lebanon, despite Israel and Lebanon agreeing to a framework deal that would lead to the Lebanese army taking over areas the Israelis withdrew from.
The first so-called pilot zone in Lebanon, in which the Lebanese army will assume control of an area now occupied by Israeli forces, will launch in “a matter of days”, with further zones being mapped out and planned, a US official said on Thursday.
Michel Issa, US ambassador to Lebanon, said on Thursday that a US military delegation will arrive in Beirut in the coming days to help establish the two pilot zones in south Lebanon as part of the Washington-brokered plan between Israel and Lebanon.
On Friday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun discussed continuing Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon with army commander General Rodolphe Haykal.
Discussions touched on “the security situation in the country in general and in the south in particular, in light of the ongoing Israeli attacks on a number of southern villages and towns”, the Lebanese presidency said on X.
“The discussion also addressed the ongoing preparations to implement what is contained in the framework formula in the designated experimental areas, where the Lebanese Army is expected to deploy concurrently with the Israeli withdrawal,” it added.
