MANSOURI, Lebanon — The center of Mansouri is a landscape of destruction: single-story shops blown out, merchandise strewn on sidewalks, glass shards everywhere, and houses reduced to crumpled piles of rubble. The village mosque is blackened and its minaret split; a crushed Lebanese civil defense vehicle lies among the debris.
Mansouri, about six miles from the Israeli border and now less than a mile from the so-called “yellow line” Israel says marks territory occupied by its forces, is one of roughly 55 towns and villages Israel has occupied in southern Lebanon. Abed Ammar, 35, an emergency responder who returned with his family during the recent temporary ceasefire to a lightly damaged hilltop house, says he can hear demolitions in nearby villages now held by Israeli troops. “The demolitions are louder than airstrikes,” he said. “We can hear them very clearly from here.”
The Israeli military has publicly shown footage of controlled detonations that level entire neighborhoods in seconds, saying the operations target Hezbollah infrastructure and are intended to create a buffer zone to reduce attacks on northern Israeli communities. Critics, human rights groups and some legal experts counter that the demolitions, combined with weeks of intense airstrikes, have razed civilian infrastructure on a large scale and could breach international law, possibly amounting to war crimes.
United Nations-appointed human rights experts condemned the pattern, arguing that broad evacuation orders followed by systematic destruction of housing mirror Israel’s operations in Gaza and show disregard for international legal norms and civilian safety. Israeli officials themselves have compared the Lebanon campaign to the Gaza offensive; after the military demolished what it said was a major Hezbollah weapons cache, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that “the fate of southern Lebanon will be the same as that of Gaza.”
An NPR team reached the edge of the Israeli-occupied zone during the ceasefire and documented buildings pancaked by airstrikes, personal belongings buried in rubble, and burned-out cars. Lebanese authorities estimate about 62,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed since March. Residents and journalists are barred from the occupied areas, but satellite analysis reveals widespread leveling across towns and villages — a pattern experts say closely resembles the destruction seen in Gaza.
Corey Scher, a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University’s Conflict Ecology lab, which uses satellite imagery to monitor conflicts, says areas in southern Lebanon that had already suffered damage are now being entirely flattened, leaving swaths that are “effectively wiped off the map.” Scher and other analysts describe a recurring sequence: heavy airstrikes, then ground incursions, followed by controlled demolitions that finish the destruction.
Israeli strikes have also hit key infrastructure. Bridges over the Litani River — vital crossings into southern Lebanon — have been damaged or destroyed during the fighting, and in the final hours before the most recent ceasefire an attack took out the Qasmiyeh bridge, the last remaining southbound crossing. Israeli officials assert that some bridges were used to move weapons for Hezbollah; humanitarian groups point out these routes also serve civilians and are essential for delivering aid and emergency services.
Humanitarian organizations say water and electricity systems have been heavily disrupted. In March, Oxfam warned that Israeli forces were “using the Gaza playbook” in Lebanon, highlighting widespread damage to water networks, power lines and bridges that have cut off essential services to entire communities. Israel rejects claims it deliberately targets civilian infrastructure, saying strikes are necessary for national security.
For many residents of occupied towns, returning home may no longer be possible. Fifty-year-old Zainab Mahdi, from the coastal village of Naqoura near the border, has been living in a temporary shelter in Tyre since fleeing earlier rounds of fighting. During the recent ceasefire she began repairing her damaged home, only to be told later by U.N. peacekeepers that the house and most of the village have been bulldozed. “I’m angry, and I’m sad,” she said. “But I’m also feeling a lot of fear — fear about how long it will be before we can return? What if that doesn’t happen in my lifetime?” She recalls tending a garden she believes has been destroyed, yet vows to return when she can: “Just smelling our own soil is enough.”
Israel previously maintained a presence in parts of southern Lebanon for nearly two decades, and Israeli officials now say they are prepared to stay for months or even years. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of residents face the loss of homes, services and livelihoods as towns across the south lie devastated by a campaign human rights groups say mirrors tactics used in Gaza.