Emma Pengelly,
Merlyn ThomasAnd
Barbara Metzler,BBC Check
Towns and villages in southern Lebanon are being razed by Israeli demolitions, satellite images and videos obtained by BBC Verify reveal.
Analysis by BBC Verify found that more than 1,400 buildings had been destroyed since March 2, based on verified visual evidence.
This is only a snapshot of the overall damage caused by Israeli airstrikes and demolitions, due to limited ground access and available satellite imagery. The true scale is probably much higher.
Israel’s leveling of these structures comes after Defense Minister Israel Katz’s March 22 order to “accelerate the destruction of Lebanese homes” near the Israeli border based on the “Gaza model” as part of its campaign against Hezbollah.
The systematic demolition of these towns and villages could constitute a war crime, international law experts told BBC Verify.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has stated that it operates in accordance with the laws of armed conflict and does not authorize the destruction of property except in cases of compelling military necessity.
He adds, without providing evidence, that Hezbollah has integrated military infrastructure into civilian areas in the region.
On March 2, the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah launched rockets and drones into Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the war with Israel and the United States.
The Israeli military responded with a wave of strikes across Lebanon, targeting what it said was Hezbollah’s infrastructure, and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
An IDF spokesperson first ordered Lebanese civilians living near the border to leave on March 2. A few days later, the evacuation order was extended to people living south of the Litani River, about 30 km from the border, and was later expanded to those living south of the Zahrani River, 40 km from the border.
On March 16, the IDF announced that its troops had launched a ground operation against Hezbollah – a Shiite Muslim political and military group – in southern Lebanon.
More than 1.2 million people are estimated to have been displaced across Lebanon, including 820,000 from the south, according to figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The war in Lebanon has forced many people to flee to areas further north or cross the border into Syria.
Lebanon’s health ministry says more than 2,000 people have been killed since the war began. Israeli authorities said 13 soldiers and two civilians had been killed by Hezbollah in the past six weeks.
The hilltop Lebanese border towns and villages are now difficult to recognize. Once characterized by their winding streets lined with stone buildings overlooking vast valleys, verified videos now show how they have turned gray from dust and debris from explosions.
Katz’s plan to create a “security zone” under Israeli control stretching from the border to the Litani River would occupy about 10 percent of Lebanese territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was to “thwart the threat of invasion”.
Using verified footage and analysis of available satellite images, BBC Verify found evidence of controlled Israeli demolitions in at least seven border towns and villages.
The town of Taybeh, located about 4 km from the border, was the subject of particularly intense demolitions. Eleven verified videos show entire sections of the city being blown up simultaneously.
A comparison of satellite images taken on February 28 and April 11 shows that more than 400 buildings, including a mosque, were razed there.
Meanwhile, in the town of Khiam and the villages of Qouzah, Deir Seryan, Markaba and Aita al-Shaab, other verified videos show coordinated explosions engulfing several buildings.
We found that more than 460 buildings had been demolished in Aita al-Shaab alone. Excavators and armored vehicles can also be seen in satellite images of the village, according to Tony Reeves, founder of intelligence analysis firm MAIAR.
In the coastal town of Naqoura, explosions caused by Israeli demolitions also damaged the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.
Kandice Ardiel, a spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) based at the headquarters, said she had seen regular demolitions of several buildings at a time since early April.
Our analysis of satellite images shows that at least 100 buildings have been razed in Naqoura in recent weeks.
Ardiel said most of the buildings opposite UNIFIL headquarters had now been destroyed, calling the “scale of destruction” in Naqoura “truly heartbreaking.” “They’re not just buildings, they represent a community,” she added.
UNIFILE
The deliberate demolition of structures is not a new Israeli military tactic. He was deployed across large areas of Gaza during the war sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“It has been clear since October 7 and since Israel and Hezbollah went to war that there is a strategy for Israel to overhaul the balance of power in the region,” said Renad Mansour, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a U.K.-based think tank.
Several legal experts told BBC Verify that the destruction of property is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law unless required by military necessity.
The bar for necessity is higher than convenience or military advantage, according to Professor Janina Dill, an expert in global security and international law at the University of Oxford: “It certainly does not cover the razing of entire villages as a predicate of long-term national security.”
It also requires a case-by-case analysis to determine which buildings have military significance, said Yuval Shany, a legal expert at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.
The ability of some civilian buildings to be used for military activities “does not justify a radical policy of creating buffer zones next to the border, within which all buildings must be destroyed”, he added.
Airbus DS
Professor Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, said Israel’s “massive destruction of residential areas, particularly in southern Lebanon but also in parts of Beirut”, appeared to violate international humanitarian law.
Shiite Muslim communities make up the vast majority of southern Lebanon’s population, but other groups, notably Christians, also live there.
“In places, the type of attacks appear to be aimed primarily at ‘cleaning’ [Shia] villages and populations in the south, collectively punishing civilian populations in which Hezbollah fighters may be mixed,” Saul said.
The IDF responded that “any suggestion that the IDF acts to ‘cleanse’ civilian populations, punish communities, or target civilians on the basis of their religion or sect is categorically false.”
“These warnings are not intended to permanently displace civilians or prevent their legal return,” the text adds.
Dr Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, co-director of the Center for International Law at the University of Bristol, reiterated that the “fundamental rule of law” is that civilian objects should not be targeted.
“It is not admissible to claim that the total destruction of towns and villages in southern Lebanon is necessary to create a buffer zone to hold back Hezbollah,” he said. “Even though Israel’s war in Lebanon can be seen as self-defense against Hezbollah attacks, its conduct appears to go well beyond a limited war of self-defense against specific attacks.”
Additional reporting by Paul Brown and Adam Durbin.
