Intensified Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon late Thursday have heightened fears that Tel Aviv is enforcing a “systematic policy to economically strangle the south and prevent life from returning,” after expanding its bombardment to include civilian and industrial facilities used in reconstruction efforts.
A week after targeting heavy machinery and excavators engaged in rebuilding damaged areas, Israeli warplanes carried out some of their most violent raids in weeks on Thursday evening, striking the Wadi Bsafour area between the towns of Ansar and Sinnay, north of the Litani River.
The bombardment caused extensive destruction in cement factories and industrial workshops, with explosions heard across Nabatieh and Zahrani.
Lebanon’s National News Agency described the raids as “among the most intense in weeks,” noting that the missiles produced an unprecedented flash and powerful tremors felt in nearby villages.
The losses extended beyond industrial and construction sites. The South Lebanon Water Establishment said in a statement that the strikes “hit and destroyed the institution’s strategic fuel depot, resulting in the total loss of its contents.”
The facility reportedly contained about half a million liters of diesel used to power electricity generators for water pumping stations and wells that supply southern towns and villages.
The raids came amid continued Israeli operations that the army said were aimed at pursuing Hezbollah fighters, alongside what it described as repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.
On Friday afternoon, an Israeli drone struck a car in the southern town of Khirbet Selm, killing one person. Another drone dropped a stun grenade near the Qita al-Zaytouna area in the town of Blida, in the Marjayoun district.
Economic Targeting
The escalation has stirred debate over the nature and intent of Israel’s recent strikes — whether they are part of its ongoing military campaign or represent a deliberate shift toward targeting southern Lebanon’s economic and productive infrastructure.
Residents of the region say the strikes “no longer target potential military sites but have hit the arteries of civilian life.” They added that “the current confrontation is not measured by the number of rockets but by the number of destroyed workshops and workers who lost their livelihoods,” warning that the economic toll could drive residents to flee under the weight of poverty and mounting losses.
MP Mohammad Khawaja, a member of the Development and Liberation Bloc, said the targeting of cement plants and quarries “is no coincidence nor a limited field response, but a systematic policy aimed at economically suffocating the south and blocking any return to normal life.”
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel “is frustrated by the return of hundreds of families to their homes in Aitaroun, Maroun al-Ras, Blida, and Khiam, after betting these towns would remain empty.” He added that residents’ determination to rebuild their homes, “even if starting with one room,” had “upset the occupation, which sought to turn the south into a desolate zone.”
Khawaja estimated the material cost of the latest strikes at over $15 million, citing the destruction of more than 300 engineering machines and trucks, some belonging to contractors working with the Ministry of Public Works. “The real goal,” he said, “is to keep the south paralyzed and prevent any genuine economic recovery or reconstruction.”
Responding to Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee’s claims that Hezbollah uses such facilities to rebuild its military infrastructure, Khawaja said: “These are baseless allegations meant to justify unjustified aggression. The targeted plants are part of licensed development projects overseen by Lebanese ministries and have no link to any military activity.”
He added that Israel is now “using the economy as a weapon to subdue Lebanon politically after failing to achieve its goals militarily,” urging a “unified national stance, because the Israeli threat targets not only the south, but all of Lebanon.”
‘The Decision Lies on the Ground’
From a strategic perspective, retired Brigadier General Naji Malaeb said Israel’s targeting pattern “is no longer purely military; it now focuses on economic and civilian infrastructure such as quarries, concrete plants, and bulldozers, with the aim of crippling reconstruction and preventing the return of normal life to southern villages.”
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “Israel understands that whoever rebuilds the land controls its political and social fate. It therefore seeks to destroy the material foundations that allow people to remain steadfast.”
“When Hezbollah deployed about 1,200 engineers and technicians after the ceasefire to assess damage and assist residents,” Malaeb added, “Israel realized the group was filling the state’s vacuum — and chose to respond by striking the very infrastructure people rely on to rebuild.”
He described the raids as “economic punishment targeting the social fabric of the south,” explaining that “every workshop bombed and every cement mixer destroyed delays people’s return home and fuels slow displacement.”
“The south today faces a dual threat — fire from the sky and economic strangulation on the ground,” Malaeb said.
On the ground, the devastation speaks for itself: idle factories, burned bulldozers, and workers left without jobs. According to Malaeb, “Israel is using the economy as a long-term weapon — one that erodes people’s resilience and turns reconstruction into a daily war of attrition. Every strike on an industrial plant is a blow to Lebanon’s social structure, not its military one.”
Post-Strikes Scenarios
Malaeb warned that Israel’s current approach “could pave the way for a scenario similar to southern Syria, where demilitarized zones were created and managed by local structures under international oversight.”
“Israel may justify such a project under the pretext of securing its borders against terrorism,” he said, “but the real goal is to depopulate the south.” He stressed that “a national solution can only be achieved through clear demarcation of land borders and full Lebanese sovereignty over its territory.”
