- Israeli military demolished villages in southern Lebanon using remote-controlled explosions
- Demolitions targeted Hezbollah infrastructure embedded in civilian homes, per Israeli claims
- More than 2,000 deaths reported in Lebanon since Israeli operations began amid Hezbollah conflict
Over the course of the last two weeks, while the United States and Iran exchanged missiles, barbs and attempted to reach a peace deal, the Israeli military carried out the systematic demolition of entire villages in southern Lebanon.
According to the Guardian, the Israeli military demolished villages by rigging homes with explosives and then detonating them in large-scale remote-controlled explosions. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military itself and circulated on social media that showed these mass detonations taking place in the border villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan.
Lebanese media outlets have reported similar mass detonations in additional border villages, though satellite imagery to confirm those specific claims was not immediately available.
The Guardian states that the demolitions followed a public call by Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, for the destruction of "all houses" in the border villages, modelled on the approach used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza. In Rafah, in southern Gaza, the Israeli military destroyed 90 per cent of homes.The Guardian notes that the same tactic of large-scale destruction of civilian housing in Gaza has been described by academics as "domicide" - the deliberate, systematic destruction and damage of civilian homes intended to make entire areas uninhabitable. Israel has faced accusations of genocide in Gaza over the use of this method.
The Israeli military has conducted strikes and a ground invasion in Lebanon in response to rocket fire from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group. According to Lebanese media reports, Israeli strikes on the south of the country on Saturday killed 18 people. That brought the total death count from Israel's operations in Lebanon since the war began to more than 2,000.
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted a peace deal with Lebanon that "will last for generations" -- but the peace deal does not extend to Hezbollah which Israel continues to brand as a "terrorist organisation".
The Israeli military has repeatedly claimed that the demolitions targeted Hezbollah infrastructure, including tunnels and military facilities that the group had allegedly embedded inside civilian homes. Israel has announced it will occupy large areas of southern Lebanon and establish a "security zone" extending across the entire region up to the Litani River. Displaced residents will not be permitted to return until the safety of Israel's northern cities is guaranteed. This has raised concerns about long-term displacement.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Iran and the United States failed to reach a deal on Sunday to end the wider conflict. There was no immediate resumption of hostilities, and the region continued to hope that a fragile truce would hold.
US Vice President JD Vance left Pakistan after the talks -- the highest-level meeting between the two sides since the 1979 Islamic revolution. He warned that Washington had made Tehran its "final and best offer"."We leave here with a very simple proposal," Vance said. "We'll see if the Iranians accept it."
Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said his negotiating team had "put forward constructive initiatives but ultimately the other side was unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations".
