IDF Declares Mostly-Destroyed Lebanese Town of Mansouri ‘Finished’ After Huge Explosion

Strikes continue across southern Lebanon as Army discovers surveillance device

Israel launches attacks on several locations in southern Lebanon on any given day. That’s barely news in and of itself anymore, but one of the sites most persistently targeted in recent weeks was the town of Mansouri, in Tyre District.

In early August, Israel’s military imposed a full evacuation order on Mansouri, and the attacks started scaling up. At this point, the town appears to have been largely destroyed, and the IDF declared today that their Combat Engineering Unit has “finished” destroying Hezbollah infrastructure in that town.

They reported 600 “Hezbollah infrastructure” sites destroyed, which are more commonly referred to as civilian homes and commercial sites. The IDF said the destruction was meant to ensure Hezbollah could never reestablish itself in the area.

Smoke rises in Mansouri following Israeli explosions reported by Lebanon’s state news agency NNA as seen from Hinniyeh, southern Lebanon, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Today’s completion of operations came after a massive explosion in the town, which could be heard across the district, and after which smoke could be seen rising over the town, to the extent it can be called a town anymore.

Earlier this summer Israeli DM Israel Katz said that a number of Lebanese villages had to “disappear,” but previously those were immediately along the border with Israel. Mansouri, by contrast, is about 10 km north of the boundary, but seems to have similarly been wiped out.

Announcing Mansouri to be “finished” doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, of course. Israeli forces continued to carry out strikes across southern Lebanon, with Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun, and the Nabatieh District in general seemingly the main targets today.

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.

Join the Discussion!

We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.

For more details, please see our Comment Policy.