“Systematic destruction” by Israel of houses and residential complexes has turned villages in South Lebanon into “disaster” zones that lack basic services, amid ongoing clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
Lebanese official sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that 46 villages were hit by Israeli strikes, pointing out that there was no accurate count yet of the number of residential units destroyed or damaged by such attacks.
However, preliminary estimates until last week indicated that there were more than 1,000 housing units completely or partially destroyed, including 200 in the village of Kfar Kila, which faces the Israeli settlements of Metulla and Misgav Am.
While the ongoing hostilities prevent accurate damage surveys, the sources said many towns have been subjected to shelling and air raids since the start of the war on Oct. 8.
The number of targeted villages exceeded 90, according to a report issued by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Lebanon in December, a figure that has increased since then to nearly 100 towns.
The sources said that 46 towns had 10 percent of their houses damaged by Israeli attacks.
Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that about 512 homes and buildings in the Upper Galilee region were hit by Hezbollah attacks since the beginning of the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Israel adopts a policy of “systematic destruction” of residential units and life facilities, “for the purpose of evacuating the southern towns of residents,” as the sources say, and “turning the towns into open battlefields.”
In the town of Mays al-Jabal in Marjayoun District, three houses were simultaneously destroyed on Saturday, while the air raids demolished entire residential areas in Al-Dhahira in Tyre District, and Aita Al-Shaab in Bint Jbeil.
The escalation has caused the displacement of around 100,000 people from border villages, said the Minister of Social Affairs even though the numbers issued by the International Organization for Migration and the Lebanese Health Ministry indicate that more than 83,000 persons have fled the South.
The media coordinator in the Disaster Management Unit in the Union of Municipalities of Tyre, Bilal Qashmar, told Asharq Al-Awsat that there were about 24,000 displaced people in the district, including about 750 people packed in shelters established in five schools in the city of Tyre. Others have rented homes or were hosted by their relatives, he said.
