With the “ceasefire” in Lebanon that Israel continues to violate, having been extended another 45 days last week, Israeli commanders are finding themselves increasingly unclear about why exactly they’re still in Lebanon, whether the ceasefire is meant to be complied with or designed to fail, and indeed what purpose the further presence is meant to serve.
The commanders see Israel as in something of a “tangle,” where the US is opposing them advancing any further, but their policy is to remain in southern Lebanon, destroying villages and clashing with Hezbollah fighters.
This adds to the controversy surrounding an ongoing series of reports from Haaretz in which Israeli soldiers report that the primary thing they’re actually doing inside Lebanon is looting and destroying Lebanese villages.
Emergency personnel work at the site of an Israeli strike, that killed multiple people according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, in Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, Tyre district, southern Lebanon, May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
The soldiers said they view looting as an unofficial but “primary” mission of the ongoing occupation of southern Lebanon. Haaretz has repeatedly reported on the ongoing problem of troops bringing loot back across the border, saying Israeli military leadership is not holding looters to account, and citing troops who say they assumed it was acceptable behavior.
One reservist described the systematic taking of goods out of Lebanese villages and bringing them back to the Israeli outpost “so they’d be waiting for the soldiers when they went home.” Haaretz ran a similar report last month describing the widespread looting of Lebanese territory.
Since Israel invaded southern Lebanon in early March, the Lebanese Health Ministry has reported some 3,089 people who have been killed in the war, and 9,397 others wounded. This includes hundreds of both women and children.
