Israel has revived its policy of wide-scale demolitions in southern Lebanon, with the Israeli army blowing up sites on Thursday and Friday in the towns of Hadatha, Beit Yahoun, Kounine, al-Tiri and Kfar Tibnit.
The operations coincided with air strikes, artillery fire, heavy warplane and drone flights, and attacks around Arnoun-al-Shaqif, Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Yater.
An Israeli drone also struck a vehicle in Siddiqin, in Tyre district, in two consecutive attacks, wounding two people. Israeli drones dropped stun grenades in Safad al-Battikh and al-Mansouri, with no casualties reported.
The Israeli army said it killed a Hezbollah member in the Ali al-Taher heights, saying he was detected as he emerged from an underground facility and was hit in an air strike.
It also said the Givati Brigade had ended its mission in southern Lebanon after eight months of operations, saying it had destroyed hundreds of Hezbollah infrastructure sites.
As the escalation unfolded, Israeli military spokesperson Ella Waweya said the air force struck about 10 sites it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in Bint Jbeil, Beit Yahoun, Kounine and Baraachit.
She said forces from the 91st Division also targeted a truck overnight near the security zone, saying it was carrying weapons for Hezbollah and that secondary explosions after the strike pointed to ammunition inside.
The operations come as Lebanon awaits the implementation of the first phase of the “framework agreement,” which is meant to open the way for gradual Israeli withdrawals.
But no practical steps have been taken, while Israel’s military presence, bulldozing and demolition work continue, raising questions over whether the operations are preparing for withdrawal or redrawing the security reality in the south.
Facts on the ground suggest the campaign goes beyond targeting Hezbollah sites or tunnels. It points to a re-engineering of the border area by removing anything that could be used militarily and turning border villages into devastated zones where life would be difficult to restore.
Removing anything that can be used militarily
Retired Brig. Gen. Saeed Qozah told Asharq Al-Awsat that the large-scale demolitions carried out by the Israeli army in Hadatha, Beit Yahoun, al-Tiri and around Kounine did not appear to be isolated operations.
“Rather, they fall within a military plan aimed at clearing the areas Israel now controls of any military infrastructure that could pose a future threat, especially tunnels, ammunition depots and facilities that could be reused,” he said.
Qozah said the towns fall within what Israel now regards as a security zone. The Israeli army, he said, is combing through them “inch by inch,” so that if it is forced to withdraw at any stage, it does not leave behind tunnels, weapons depots or facilities that armed groups could later use.
“The Israelis have announced in recent days that they discovered tunnels in several areas. They had also previously blown up a large tunnel in Majdal Zoun, causing a powerful tremor.
So it is natural that they continue to blow up any tunnel or military facility they find inside the areas they control, because their goal is to remove anything that could pose a future threat to them,” he said.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Israeli army seizes the equipment and weapons it finds, while destroying facilities, tunnels and depots to prevent them from being used again. The pace of demolitions, he added, is “likely to continue as long as surveying and military engineering operations last inside these areas.”
Qozah said developments in the battlefield, together with the installation of military gates and repeated Israeli statements about not withdrawing from the areas it has occupied, show that Israel is moving to entrench a new security belt in southern Lebanon.
“The installation of gates, the continued demolition operations and the insistence of Israeli officials, foremost among them Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Katz, on remaining in what they call the security zone are all signs that Israel is working to create a security belt that closely resembles the belt that existed between 1982 and 2000,” he said.
The main difference between the previous security belt and what is happening today is that villages inside this zone have suffered sweeping destruction, making it easier for the Israeli army to impose control and reducing the chances of resistance operations against its positions, he added.
From removing tunnels to preventing life from returning
Retired Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassin told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Israeli army’s return to wide-scale demolitions in southern Lebanese towns, especially Hadatha, Beit Yahoun, Kounine and al-Tiri, “does not fall only within the framework of targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, but reflects Israel’s move into a new phase of cementing facts on the ground in the areas it controls.”
Yassin said Israel is working to turn the strip it occupies into a buffer zone stripped of the basic conditions for life.
“The goal is not only to remove military sites or facilities, but to prevent any sign of life from remaining inside this area, because rebuilding it will take many years, making the return of residents more difficult,” he said.
He added that the widespread destruction also serves a direct military purpose: securing full freedom of movement for Israeli forces inside the occupied area.
Removing buildings and urban infrastructure exposes the terrain to the Israeli army and limits any future ability to use it for military operations or fortified positions, ensuring Israeli forces retain freedom of maneuver.
