Israeli forces on Monday pushed beyond their “yellow line” buffer zone in south Lebanon as tanks and bulldozers entered the town of Haris and destroyed a road link to homes on its outskirts, residents said.
The push came amid a wider wave of Israeli attacks and demolitions on Monday across southern Lebanon, where homes and agricultural land were set on fire in Khiam and buildings destroyed in Taybeh, Mays Al Jebel and Yohmor.
In Haris, which lies just outside the Israeli-occupied belt, residents said Israeli tanks and bulldozers crossed the yellow line separating the area that Israel considers a buffer zone from land under Lebanon’s control.
“A while back, they crossed the yellow line once, to erect an earthen berm. We thought maybe that was it – that they had established the boundary between our village and them so that nobody could cross,” said local official Hussein Jawad. “But today they crossed it. They entered the heart of the village.”
Videos of armoured Israeli bulldozers destroying a paved road in Haris circulated on social media. Mr Jawad said Israeli tanks and bulldozers descended from a nearby hilltop to bulldoze the road, effectively cutting off a populated neighbourhood on the outskirts from the rest of the village. Residents of the neighbourhood left their homes out of fear after seeing Israeli troops operating nearby, said Mr Jawad.
While Israel has insisted it has no plans to permanently remain in south Lebanon, it has withdrawn from only one small village and continues to occupy dozens of towns. In some cases – such as the village of Mansouri, where residents are no longer permitted to return after Israel issued a forced displacement order this month – it has effectively expanded the territory it controls inside Lebanon, which extends up to 10km from the border, through artillery shelling and air raids.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that the Israeli military set fire to homes, buildings and agricultural land in the large town of Khiam – within the yellow line – where large areas of the town were reduced to rubble after the war between Israel and Hezbollah broke out again in early March. Since a ceasefire was extended in June, Israeli demolitions have continued inside the town.
A “major bombing operation” also took place in Taybeh, while in Mays Al Jebel the Israeli military demolished what used to be a temporary school on the western outskirts of the town. The Israeli military also detonated buildings in Yohmor, which sits adjacent to the historic Beaufort Castle.
Elsewhere, there was fighting near the contested and strategically significant Ali Al Taher ridge line, with Israeli air strikes at dawn landing near the hill and artillery shelling in neighbouring Kfar Tebnit. Paramedics recovered the bodies of two men who were killed by an Israeli air strike in the nearby Kfar Roummane on Sunday.
The Israeli military is poised for, but has yet to carry out, a full offensive on Ali Al Taher, a hill around 600 metres high that overlooks the major southern city of Nabatieh, which, while severely damaged, remains under Lebanese control.
Buried deep inside the hill, which is effectively under siege, is believed to be an important Hezbollah base and network of tunnels, which the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group and political party has refused to cede to anyone. A number of Hezbollah fighters are believed to be inside the base protecting it, along with advisers from Iran's IRGC.
Last week Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s Speaker of Parliament and lead negotiator with the US, appeared to highlight the importance of Ali Al Taher when he said he remained in constant contact with fighters on the ground.
