South Lebanon's villages flattened, 8,920 killed and a million people displaced

Twenty-four Lebanese villages, hundreds of years old—we destroyed all the buildings, not house by house, but entire villages.

— Israel Katz, Israeli Military minister in Netanyahu's government, Channel 14 conference, 29 July 2026

Erased from the map: the flattening of South Lebanon's villages

Israel did not merely bomb South Lebanon; it set out to unmake it. By 5 November 2024, five weeks into the ground invasion launched on 1 October 2024, Lebanon's National News Agency counted more than 40,000 housing units completely destroyed across 37 devastated southern towns, while Information International researcher Mohamed Chamseddine counted at least 29 villages completely destroyed (L'Orient Today). Amnesty International found that between 1 October 2024 and 26 January 2025 more than 10,000 structures across 24 municipalities were heavily damaged or destroyed, much of it by controlled demolition carried out after Israeli troops had secured the ground, 'outside of combat action'. In Dhayra, 71 per cent of buildings were gone. Amnesty said the destruction 'must be investigated as war crimes'. The UN human rights office puts the 16 September to 27 November 2024 toll at nearly 64,000 buildings destroyed or damaged.

The 2026 offensive finished the job. On 31 March 2026 Military minister Israel Katz announced that 'all homes in Lebanese villages near the border will be destroyed — in accordance with the Rafah and Biet Hanoun model in Gaza' (Times of Israel). Bellingcat's satellite review found that by 8 May 2026 at least 46 of the 54 towns and villages inside Israel's 'Yellow Line' had been 'heavily damaged or, in some cases, entirely flattened'. Lighthouse Reports and the Financial Times found almost 85,000 housing units damaged or destroyed in the south, and that 65 per cent of destruction indicators came after the 16 April 2026 ceasefire. Lebanon's CNRS counted more than 50,424 residential units damaged or destroyed between 2 March and 16 April alone.

Then Katz confessed it. On 29 July 2026 he boasted: 'Twenty-four Lebanese villages, hundreds of years old—we destroyed all the buildings, not house by house, but entire villages... 15,000 to 20,000 homes across all 24 villages have been destroyed' (Times of Israel). On the same reporting he said of the residents: 'They have nowhere to return to; everything there has been destroyed' (L'Orient Today, 3 August 2026).

Sources: today.lorientlejour.com, amnesty.org, ohchr.org, timesofisrael.com, bellingcat.com, lighthousereports.com, lovin.co, timesofisrael.com, today.lorientlejour.com

One in five uprooted: a population driven out, and kept out

Twice in two years Israel has driven roughly a fifth of Lebanon from its homes. On 4 October 2024 Prime Minister Najib Mikati put the number at 1.2 million people, out of a 2022 population of 5.49 million (ABC News). The IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix, which counts only those it can register, recorded 899,725 displaced as of 25 November 2024, the eve of the ceasefire (OCHA). A year later, in November 2025, the UN said more than 64,000 people, mainly from the south, were still displaced (Times of Israel, citing the UN).

From 2 March 2026 the expulsion was repeated at greater speed. By 16 March, 1,049,328 people had self-registered as displaced (WHO). The UN put the figure at more than 1.2 million by 29 March (Al Jazeera). Israeli orders told every resident south of the Litani, then south of the Zahrani river roughly 40 km from the Blue Line, to leave (OHCHR). UN experts said the displaced amounted to 'approximately one in five of Lebanon's population'.

The displacement has not ended. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reported that more than 360,000 people remained displaced at the end of July 2026; Al Jazeera, citing Lebanese figures, reported 360,000 still displaced in August, at least 22,000 of them in collective shelters. On 29 September 2026 The New Humanitarian, citing the UN, reported that more than 864,000 had returned but more than 341,000 remain displaced. Many of those who 'returned' came back to rubble; the ones who cannot return come from the zone Israel still holds.

Sources: abcnews.com, unocha.org, timesofisrael.com, emro.who.int, aljazeera.com, ohchr.org, ohchr.org, ohchr.org, aljazeera.com, thenewhumanitarian.org

Occupation by another name: from five hilltops to a 700 km² 'security zone'

The 27 November 2024 ceasefire gave Israel 60 days to withdraw. It did not. On 26 January 2025, the withdrawal deadline, residents who tried to walk back to their villages were met with gunfire: Israeli forces killed at least 22 people, including two women and a Lebanese soldier, and injured more than 124 (CBS News). After a second deadline on 18 February 2025 Israel kept five hilltops inside Lebanon: al-Aziyah, al-Awaida, el-Hamames, Jabal Bilat and Labbouneh (Al Jazeera). By the ceasefire's first anniversary UNIFIL had recorded more than 10,000 Israeli air and ground violations (Anadolu, citing UNIFIL); the UN counted at least 127 civilians killed since the truce and a wall crossing into Lebanese territory that made 4,000 square metres inaccessible (Times of Israel, citing the UN).

In March 2026 Netanyahu turned the five points into a zone. Israel's ground invasion began on 16 March. On 29 March Netanyahu said: 'I have just instructed to further expand the existing security buffer zone' (Al Jazeera). By June Israel held about 570 km² (Al Jazeera); in July Katz claimed '700 square kilometers in southern Lebanon — from the coastline until the Beaufort Castle and the foothills of the Hermon' (Times of Israel). The New Humanitarian reports Israel occupies around 68 towns and villages.

Netanyahu has stated the purpose plainly. On 26 June 2026 he said the zone would be held 'until Hezbollah disarms' and added: 'We are not allowing Hezbollah, nor the Lebanese population to enter that area' (Times of Israel). The killing goes on: strikes killed at least 11 people, including three children, on 15 August 2026 (Times of Israel), and the Health Ministry's count kept rising through 17 September 2026 'as Israeli attacks continue across several areas of southern Lebanon' (Palestinian Information Center).

Sources: cbsnews.com, aljazeera.com, aa.com.tr, timesofisrael.com, timesofisrael.com, aljazeera.com, aljazeera.com, timesofisrael.com, thenewhumanitarian.org, timesofisrael.com, timesofisrael.com, english.palinfo.com

The dead: nearly 9,000 killed, families buried in their homes

Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health counts 8,953 people killed and 30,643 wounded by Israeli attacks between 8 October 2023 and 17 September 2026. Of these, 4,047 were killed by 4 December 2024, among them 316 children and 790 women; 4,386 were killed between 2 March and 17 September 2026 alone. UNICEF reports at least 261 children killed and 1,056 injured since 2 March 2026, 'an average of seven children killed or injured every day over six months'.

Netanyahu warned the Lebanese on 8 October 2024 of 'destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza' (Al Jazeera). The ministry had already recorded 558 people killed on 23 September 2024, including 50 children and 94 women, Lebanon's deadliest day since its civil war (HRW). The pager and walkie-talkie explosions of 17-18 September 2024 killed at least 37 people, including a nine-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, and injured more than 2,931; Amnesty said they 'should be investigated as war crimes'. On 29 September 2024 a strike on a building in Ain el-Delb near Saida likely killed at least 60 civilians, including at least 25 women and 19 children (Airwars). On 14 October 2024 a strike in the Christian village of Aitou killed 23 people displaced from the south, 12 of them women and two of them children (Amnesty; OHCHR). In Baalbek on 21 October 2024 a strike killed six members of the Othman family, two women and four children (Amnesty).

In 2026 the massacres resumed at scale. On 8 April 2026, hours after a ceasefire was announced, Israeli forces struck more than 150 locations in a 10-minute onslaught, killing at least 303 people and wounding 1,150 (UN experts).

Sources: english.palinfo.com, lbcgroup.tv, arabnews.pk, unicef.org, aljazeera.com, hrw.org, amnesty.org, airwars.org, amnesty.org, aleteia.org, ohchr.org

Emptying the Shia south: the evidence behind the charge of ethnic cleansing

Israeli officials have named the community they are removing. On 16 March 2026 Katz said: 'Hundreds of thousands of Shiite residents of south Lebanon who have evacuated...will not return to the area south of the Litani [River] until the safety of the residents of the north is guaranteed' (Times of Israel). Human Rights Watch noted that Israeli evacuation orders cover 'large swaths of the predominantly Shia population in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut', about 15 per cent of Lebanese territory, and called the displacement a possible war crime. Drop Site News reported that Israeli officers phoned the heads of majority-Christian villages and ordered them to force out the displaced sheltering there; the New York Times reported Israel urging Christian and Druze communities to push Shia residents out (via Democracy Now!).

UN bodies have reached the same conclusion. On 15 April 2026 UN Special Rapporteurs wrote that the deliberate destruction of homes is 'a form of collective punishment, particularly in Shiite areas in the rural South of the country. It also points to ethnic cleansing.' OHCHR found that Israeli leaders 'repeatedly referred to southern Lebanon as "another Gaza"' and that the orders 'raise serious concerns of forced displacement, prohibited under international humanitarian law'. On 26 August 2026 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination cited Katz 'characterising "the Shia inhabitants of 24 villages in southern Lebanon as enemies"'.

BL00D.MONEY's charge: mass expulsion of a population identified by sect, the razing of its villages, and a declared ban on its return are the elements of ethnic cleansing, and that is what UN experts say the evidence points to.

Sources: timesofisrael.com, hrw.org, dropsitenews.com, democracynow.org, ohchr.org, ohchr.org, ohchr.org

Killing the witnesses and the rescuers, wrecking the means of life

Israel has killed journalists in Lebanon from the first week. On 13 October 2023 an Israeli tank fired two rounds 37 seconds apart at a group of reporters, killing Reuters' Issam Abdallah (Reuters, via NPR); HRW called it an apparent war crime. On 21 November 2023 an Israeli strike killed Al Mayadeen's Farah Omar and Rabih Me'mari at Tayr Harfa (Al Jazeera). On 25 October 2024 a US-made JDAM-guided bomb killed Ghassan Najjar, Mohammad Reda and Wissam Kassem at a Hasbaya compound housing more than a dozen journalists, 'most likely a deliberate attack on civilians' (HRW). In 2026 Israel killed Ali Shoaib and Fatima and Mohamad Ftouni on 28 March (CPJ), and on 22 April it struck Amal Khalil's shelter while paramedics were driven off with a stun grenade (HRW). CPJ counts 16 Lebanese journalists killed in Lebanon as of 24 September 2026.

Rescuers were also killed. OCHA recorded 241 health workers killed between October 2023 and November 2024. The Health Ministry counted 67 attacks on hospitals, 40 of them direct, and 256 emergency vehicles targeted. Since 2 March 2026 it has recorded 179 attacks on ambulance crews and 135 healthcare workers killed (Al Jazeera).

Farmland and water have been destroyed too. HRW verified white phosphorus in at least 17 municipalities by June 2024. Lighthouse/FT found herbicide sprayed over 2,000 hectares and at least 2,500 km of water infrastructure destroyed. The World Bank put 2024 reconstruction needs at US$11 billion against US$14 billion in damage and losses; Lebanon's government estimates 2026 direct damage at US$3-4 billion, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam says the total may exceed US$27 billion.

Sources: npr.org, aljazeera.com, Human Rights Watch, globalnews.ca, hrw.org, cpj.org, unocha.org, arabnews.pk, aljazeera.com, hrw.org, lighthousereports.com, worldbank.org, english.news.cn, middleeastmonitor.com

In their words

You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza

— Benjamin Netanyahu, video message to the Lebanese people, 8 October 2024

I have just instructed to further expand the existing security buffer zone. We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north [of Israel].

— Benjamin Netanyahu, statement, 29 March 2026

We are not allowing Hezbollah, nor the Lebanese population to enter that area.

— Benjamin Netanyahu, on the south Lebanon buffer zone, 26 June 2026