Israel’s military continued its invasion of southern Lebanon today, despite the 60-day ceasefire in place during which it’s meant to vacate the country.
The village of Beit Lif was the latest target, with Israeli Merkava tanks and military bulldozers arriving at the outskirts of town and shelling the area. Israeli troops armed with machine guns also invaded the neighboring towns of Yater and Ramieh.
These towns and villages aren’t far from the Israeli border but were not occupied at the time of the ceasefire. Israel has taken multiple villages in different parts of southern Lebanon since the ceasefire began and has withdrawn from only a handful.
The ceasefire was meant to see Israel leave the occupied towns and Lebanese forces to replace them. Lebanese troops are showing up in towns like Shamaa and al-Bayda, however, and are reporting that Israel has razed multiple neighborhoods to the ground.
There have been persistent reports of Israeli bulldozers leveling civilian homes across southern Lebanon, but it is only with the arrival of Lebanese forces in those areas that we see what is actually left there. Bulldozing homes for weeks after the ceasefire, the reality is that there isn’t much left.
While it can’t be definitely stated that the newly invaded towns and villages are going to face the same demolition, the bulldozers are present, and Israel has been stepping up the bulldozing of homes and infrastructure wherever it goes.
Israel has made a point of warning civilians against trying to return to their homes all across a band of southern Lebanon, and these newly invaded towns are inside that zone. Many Lebanese have been displaced throughout the war, and many are trying to return home after almost 40 days of “ceasefire,” despite the warnings against doing so.
Israeli activist are stepping up calls to just expand Israel into southern Lebanon outright and set up settlements over the ruins of the former villages that the bulldozers are in the process of destroying. They claim an “historical” Israeli right to southern Lebanon and insist that only Israeli settlements would lead to security in the region.
