Israeli officers and soldiers have acknowledged carrying out widespread destruction of buildings in villages in southern Lebanon, saying their mission goes beyond targetting Hezbollah infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since March 2, Israel has waged an offensive on Lebanon that has killed at least 2 534 people, wounded 7 863 and displaced more than 1,6 million \u2014 about one-fifth of the population \u2014 according to official figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 10-day ceasefire that began April 17 was later extended until May 17, but Israel continues to violate it daily through airstrikes and the demolition of homes in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the Israeli army has released footage of large-scale demolitions, claiming it is targetting \u201cHezbollah infrastructure,\u201d soldiers cited by Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the reality is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quoting unnamed field soldiers, the newspaper reported Wednesday that \u201cmuch of what they do now isn’t directly fighting Hezbollah, but systematically destroying buildings in villages in southern Lebanon\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The only mission is to continue the destruction. There is no other mission,” an Israeli officer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another added that, contrary to the army’s claims, \u201cit isn’t terrorist infrastructure; we’re destroying everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the daily, the army refers to its plan to demolish \u201cShiite villages\u201d in southern Lebanon as \u201cOperation Silver Plow\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs part of this plan, a polygon is marked out for each of the units in the area showing the section they are responsible for razing,\u201d the newspaper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the end of every day, there’s an assessment of what was accomplished, and every commander is required to report how many homes he destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Haaretz said each unit is allocated bulldozers operated by civilian contractors that it is required to protect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSoldiers and officers in the field say the drone threat is worse when they are in open areas and when they are moving,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe problems arise when the forces are in the open and cannot protect themselves properly. And most of the work of demolishing homes in Lebanese villages takes place in open areas, leaving the soldiers vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One soldier involved in the operations said: \u201cWe stand there, exposed, and guard the demolition of homes while drones are in the air. There’s no logic to this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the end of every day, there’s a report on how many homes were destroyed,\u201d another officer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soldiers also told the newspaper said the civilian contractors are paid based on how much they demolish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe’re there to guard them, risking our lives,\u201d one soldier said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report comes as Israel moves to expand buffer zones beyond its borders, similar to measures taken in Gaza and Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In April, the Israeli army announced the imposition of the so-called \u201cYellow Line\u201d south of the Litani River, a notional boundary designing the area stretching to the border as a \u201csecurity buffer zone,\u201d in a step reminiscent of the Gaza model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Israel, the zone is intended to prevent displaced residents from returning and to target any armed activity, classifying it as a \u201ccombat zone\u201d not subject to ceasefire understandings. The move suggests an attempt to entrench a new reality on the ground while preemptively justifying future attacks in the area. – AA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israeli officers and soldiers have acknowledged carrying out widespread destruction of buildings in villages in southern Lebanon, saying their mission goes beyond targetting Hezbollah infrastructure. Since March 2, Israel has waged an offensive on Lebanon that has killed at least 2 534 people, wounded 7 863 and displaced more than 1,6 million \u2014 about one-fifth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[435,15,188],"class_list":{"0":"post-3091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conflict-zones","8":"tag-hezbollah","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-lebanon"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3093,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions\/3093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}