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“We are going to do [in Lebanon] what we did in Gaza,” a senior Israeli official told Axios on March 13.
Eleven days earlier, in the early hours of March 2, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into northern Israel. The attack followed months of Israeli violations of a U.S.-mediated cessation of hostilities agreed in November 2024, with more than 15,400 recorded by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). In a subsequent statement, Hezbollah said that the attack was a response to these violations, as well as to the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the day before. Within hours, the Israeli forces had issued ‘evacuation' warnings for villages along Lebanon's southern border, giving residents little time to flee.
Mohammad Yassine, a displaced resident of the border village of Houla, told Palestine Square he received a forced displacement warning at approximately 3:30 a.m., less than two hours after the initial exchange of rocket fire. “Fifteen minutes after we left, they destroyed the house,” he said. “Two strikes, and it was gone.”
In the weeks since, Israeli
airstrikes, bombing campaigns, and assassinations have intensified
across Lebanon, including repeated attacks on central Beirut. The
Israeli army has issued repeated forced evacuation orders for all
villages south of the Zahrani River, ordering hundreds of thousands of
people out of their homes. Historic villages across the border have been
subjected to sustained bombardment and artillery shelling. Lebanese authorities
report that, since March 2, more than 2,800 people have been killed,
over a million displaced, and tens of thousands of homes reduced to
rubble.
Villages Under Attack
Satellite imagery, drone footage, and reporting show widespread destruction across border villages, with entire neighborhoods rigged and detonated. Most towns have been rendered unrecognizable. “Our areas on the border are all totally destroyed,” Yassine said, “even the houses that were destroyed [in the 2024 war], they destroyed them again.”
Sky News reported that since March 2, homes across 29 villages sitting within 10 kilometers of the southern border have been completely razed. Residential areas, schools, hospitals, and places of worship have been leveled by explosives and artillery. In Bint Jbeil, entire neighborhoods have been demolished, government buildings detonated, leaving behind little more than dust visible in satellite imagery. Drone footage shows what is left of the ancient town. In Khiam, mosques and churches have been targeted, and the Khiam detention center — a former prison used during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and later preserved as a memorial site — was also leveled. Visual documentation from Naqoura — where the UNIFIL headquarters are — shows widespread devastation, with large sections reduced to rubble. Local accounts describe bulldozers entering damaged areas to demolish structures that remain standing. Even the UNIFIL compound itself was damaged, and several UNIFIL peacekeepers were killed and injured as a result of these strikes.
Christian villages were also damaged, despite the promises of Israeli officials. Israeli soldiers were filmed damaging a statue of Jesus Christ in the town of Debel, while solar panels supplying electricity to the area were destroyed days later.
Despite this, many still hope to return to their villages and rebuild. Raoufa, from the village of Qlayleh, who asked to be identified only by her first name, insisted that "no one will leave [...] a single piece of soil from the South is worth more than gold!”
Evidence of Intent
Israeli officials have openly stated their intentions in Lebanon: to destroy swathes of territory in the South, rendering it uninhabitable, and then to remain in control of it. A recent report published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz indicates that military units are assigned specific areas to demolish, with commanders required to report the number of homes destroyed each day. An Israeli commander was quoted as saying, “It isn't terrorist infrastructure [...] we're destroying everything.” Another official stated, “The only mission is to continue the destruction,” to ensure that the Shi'a population is not able to go back home to their villages.
Similar statements by senior Israeli officials have reinforced this approach in recent weeks. In a speech in late March, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the annexation of South Lebanon, up to the Litani River. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Israel should destroy villages in southern Lebanon. Retired general Uzi Dayan proposed creating a “death zone” and to “occupy the territory, expel everyone there, destroy everything there.” Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that all houses in villages near the Lebanese border would be destroyed “in accordance with the model of Gaza.”
Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Democracy Now that what distinguishes the current moment from recent years is a “new brazenness […] where they are simply stating that they intend to commit more war crimes,” which he argues is a reflection of “the state of impunity for any violations that have been committed in Lebanon, as in Gaza.”
History Repeats Itself
Israel's large-scale 1982 invasion of Lebanon and subsequent occupation of southern Lebanon until 2000 established a system of control marked by depopulation, surveillance, and restricted movement. Fadi Tufeili, from the town of Deir El Zahrani in Nabatieh, recalls being displaced as a child in 1985. “I was nine years old, and I used to go to the intersection right before my village, and I'd look at my village from far [...] I always had hope that I'd return. And I did.” During the 2006 Israeli invasion, much of southern Lebanon was subjected to extensive aerial bombardment. In just over a month, over 1200 civilians were killed, and residential and government infrastructure were destroyed. Since September 2024, Israeli forces have carried out repeated incursions into southern Lebanon. Drone surveillance has remained constant over border villages, and residents have faced ongoing threats even during periods described as ceasefires.
The scale of destruction, coupled with repeated displacement and ongoing military pressure, points to a broader pattern taking shape along Lebanon's southern border. This pattern — destroy, depopulate, and render uninhabitable — mirrors tactics long documented in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon itself, and suggests that the current campaign may extend beyond immediate military retaliation, in an effort to reshape the demographic and geographic reality of the border.
The Yellow Line
The “Forward-Defense Zone,” an Israel-declared military zone that extends about 10 kilometers into southern Lebanon and is marked by a “Yellow Line,” was imposed following the start of the U.S.-mediated cessation of hostilities on April 16. Residents of 55 villages in this zone have been barred from returning home. In practice, this creates an Israel-controlled zone in roughly 5.8% of Lebanese territory, enforced through continued military presence, surveillance, and the threat of force. In Prime Minister Netanyahu's own words, “that is where we are, and we are not leaving.”
The implications, however, extend beyond this “buffer.” Unlike in 2024, the current ceasefire framework allows Israel the unilateral ability to strike at will under the guise of “self-defense.” Since negotiations have begun, Israeli strikes have intensified on areas much further north than the “Yellow Line,” and even north of the Litani River, which is where Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had stated weeks earlier that they would “maintain security control over.”
Gaza has effectively served as an operational template for these measures. The “Yellow Line” imposed there during the October 2025 ceasefire has been steadily expanding, going from 53% of Gaza's territory to now 58%, with no consequences or restraint imposed by the international community. The impunity with which the Israeli army has acted in Gaza, breaking international law by targeting civilians, journalists, as well as medical personnel and hospitals, with zero consequence, and displacing hundreds of thousands of people, has set a dangerous precedent for them to do the same thing in Lebanon.
The combination of widespread destruction, forced displacement, and insistence on retaining control of Lebanese territory points to more than a military campaign. It signals an effort to reshape not only the immediate border area, but the country itself.
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