The nearly nine-month-long war between Israel and Lebanon has prompted the Israel Defense Forces to destroy nearly everything along the Lebanese side of the border. The daily attacks are making the area uninhabitable.
Citing satellite imagery, The Financial Times reports that the IDF use of “aerial bombardment, artillery shelling and the incendiary chemical white phosphorus have made much of the 5 km north of the Blue Line uninhabitable.” Some entire neighborhoods in Lebanon have been systematically leveled.
After the Israeli onslaught on Gaza began, Tel Aviv also got locked into a low-intensity war with Hezbollah. So far, the conflict has been limited to tit-for-tat daily strikes but these have slowly escalated. The fighting has killed hundreds in Lebanon and over 25 Israelis. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced from the border area, and large swaths of southern Lebanon have been decimated.
The IDF has used white phosphorus weapons – and even fireballs slung from trebuchets – to set fire to farms and vegetation. An Israeli official claimed that Tel Aviv was not trying to create a dead zone or buffer area, but rather to clear the area of Hezbollah. “We just want Hezbollah pushed back,” the official said. “We have to ‘clean out’ the area of Hezbollah’s presence.”
Tel Aviv justifies the destruction by claiming that Hezbollah uses civilians as human shields, and Israeli officials make similar arguments about Hamas in Gaza. “Every third home in south Lebanon is used by Hezbollah for weapons storage, training, firing positions, and meeting points for a possible cross-border attack,” a senior Israeli military official told FT.
While the US has been attempting to achieve a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, Israel and Hezbollah remain at an impasse. The Lebanese organization says its military operations are aimed at drawing some of Israel’s military resources away from Gaza, and it will cease attacks on Israel once the onslaught against the Palestinians is over.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to say he is not willing to end the military operations in Gaza, and Tel Aviv demands that Hezbollah withdraw several miles from the border to an area north of the Litani River.
In recent weeks, international concern has spiked that a major war between the IDF and Hezbollah will break out. The White House has made some proposals but is refusing to place any pressure on Tel Aviv to wind down military operations against Gaza or Lebanon.
Israeli officials say Hezbollah is running out of time to come to a diplomatic settlement. After a three-day trip to Washington earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to bomb Lebanon “back to the stone age” if Hezbollah does not comply with Tel Aviv’s demands.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
" …The fighting has killed hundreds in Lebanon and over 25 Israelis."
typical proportionality in anything israel and the USA do in the Third World/global south
The good old days when Jews will lie down and take it are over. Look who is behind Hez.
Right. We got the disproportionate box checked. "The good old days" and Iran. Always reliable to explain away anything and everything Israel does.
When did those days ever exist?
“We must do horrible things, because our mythology claims we suffered in the past.”
Oh, for about 2,000 years fro shortly after the death of Jesus until Oct 7.
False. It’s just disallowed to speak of Jewish oppression of others.
Extraordinary that Likudniks such as Jake so openly justify Genocide. It’s almost as if the Enlightenment ( brotherhood of man, equal rights etc) never existed.
Some are more equal than others apparently. I’m not really big on the Enlightenment though. It seems to have forgotten all that was learned before it.
We don't need to call it "Liberated Zone," "Humanitarian Corridor," or $hit like that anymore. We call it "Dead Zone." Orwell, take note. Add "Death is Life" to your drivel.
The zone of life where everything is dead.
"but is refusing to place any pressure on Tel Aviv to wind down military operations against Gaza or Lebanon" Funny how some writers feel that Israel should stop its military action but they don't call for the other side to stop. If Hamas surrenders, the war in Gaza is over. If Hezbollah stops firing rockets into Israel the attacks on Lebanon stopped.
The other side is willing to stop. The other side isn't destroying Israel presently while Israel continues to destroy Gaza. So, maybe the writers can understand who totally controls whether this war will end. It isn't Hamas.
"The other side is willing to stop." LOL. You got to be kidding? Pay attention.
The writers publish these articles to find out who the idiots are…!
Hamas is willing to stop. And has been. Under conditions. Such as the cease fire is permanent, and Israel withdraws from Gaza. Israel isn't willing to stop under any conditions.
Netanyahu Rejects Any Deal That Ends Gaza War
How can Hamas surrender? That would never happen. Gaza is a war of ethnic cleansing.
yes,Oct 7 was a Hamas attempt at ethnic cleansing.
Once more for argument's sake, let's go with that. And then the professionals, the IDF, showed them how it's done.
There no ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The ethnic and racial make up of Gaza is same as it was at the beginning of the battle.
Really? So all those years when the Palestinian population had no ability to resist the Israelis just lived in peace with them? Do you actually believe that?
Actual recorded history, including the official history of the Israeli government, says something diametrically opposite.
Hezbollah targets are way beyond three miles inside Israel…!
The purpose of the dead zone is too reduce the chance infiltration of terrorists. It will not prevent rockets.
Creating a dead zone is terrorism if/when Hezbollah does it.
Indeed the Lebanese appear to have created a 5-30km safe zone on the “Israeli” side of the boundary.
Scroll through the articles to see the Lebanese perspective
https://english.almanar.com.lb/cat/news/lebanon/page/4
Safe for cockroaches.
Well past time to bind the Israeli "leadership" in chains and send them to the Hague.
The state of Israel: the most grotesque idea and distortion of justice in the twentieth century.
Is there some reason this article does not point out that the entire north of Israel including all of Galilee has been depopulated by Israel's settlers fleeing the Hezbollah attacks and that Hezbollah has set numerous settler villages (abandoned) on fire?
Israel is just using the same tactics. Unfortunately for them, the impact on their economy is much worse than the impact on Lebanon's economy by a few villages population moving elsewhere.
Israel has also been forced to move all its tanks from the border region due to Hezbollah using long-range ATGMs (antitank guided munitions) to destroy dozens of tanks.
These morons don't understand that Hezbollah can not be affected by any such Israeli tactics because they are underground and invulnerable to Israeli attacks by air or ground, just like Hamas is in Gaza. Israel is trying to use the Lebanese population displacement and threats to bomb Lebanon to get the Lebanese government to pressure Hezbollah. "That ain't gonna happen" because Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government and has a much bigger and more effective military than Lebanon has.
Suddenly China enters the fray:
“You might be Chosen, but we have the Mandate of Heaven. All your base are belong to us!”
And the wars end under China’s mass produced boot.
Unlikely, China learned several centuries ago that militarily dominating an unwilling population at the far end of extended supply lines is a recipe for failure. If it doesn't immediately adjoin their territory and doesn't negatively affect them then trade is far more effective than weapons.
The US is about to learn that same lesson.
""Tel Aviv is attempting to destroy everything within three miles of the border (with Lebanon)""
really. on which side of the border is the destruction occurring.
oh of course = """.. prompted the Israel Defense Forces to destroy nearly everything along the Lebanese side of the border. The daily attacks are making the area uninhabitable."""
of course. and next year IDF can scoot the borders over by 3 miles and call it good.
couple years of that and maybe Israel will control the long-coveted Litani River.
150 Israelis died according to their own statements because one of their officials gave that number. It is floting around in Twitter
”Dead Zone”, sounds like a Stephen King novel!…. How apropos!