The entire street was leveled. It is laid out flat with houses and shops, including a popular cafe. This is what remains of the village of Bint Jbeil, just a few miles from the Israeli border, nearly two months after Israel resumed its ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
The destruction of the city, a Hezbollah stronghold, continues to be repeated across southern Lebanon, a lush, rolling landscape where Israel has destroyed border towns in an effort to lay the groundwork for a larger occupation.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the approach was modeled on tactics used by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces reduced entire neighborhoods, buildings, and streets to rubble.
In early March, when the war between Israel and Hezbollah flared up again, Hezbollah joined forces with Iran to attack Israel. Israel has established a miles-deep “buffer zone” that it says it will continue to occupy until the Hezbollah threat is contained.
Analysis of satellite images, along with photos and videos shared online and seen by The New York Times, shows the scope of the campaign. Widespread demolitions have devastated at least 20 cities and villages near the border, damaging government buildings as well as civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and mosques.
The villages are now clouded to ash, white wreckage marking each village.
“I feel like I am free from the anger and sadness,” said Nabil Sunbul, 67, who works at a bakery in Bint Jbeil village. He has now fled to Beirut with only his few belongings.
Satellite images showed that the area where Mr. Sun lived and worked was severely damaged, but it was unclear whether his home was completely destroyed.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, including journalists and medical workers, and destroyed infrastructure such as bridges and gas stations since the war began. More than a million people have been displaced. Fighting continued despite the U.S.-brokered ceasefire being extended until mid-May.
The Israeli military says it is targeting infrastructure and positions belonging to Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed group has fired hundreds of drones, rockets and anti-tank missiles toward Israel, killing at least 17 Israeli soldiers since early March, according to the Israeli military.
Legal experts and human rights activists say targeting or destroying civilian infrastructure without a valid military justification constitutes a war crime. They also expressed concern about statements by Israeli officials that the destruction of southern Lebanon in the Gaza Strip would be modeled after the scale of destruction and loss of life in the district.
“The deliberate and widespread destruction of civilian objects or property without any military justification for the wanton destruction is a war crime,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating “in accordance with international law” and had issued instructions allowing the demolition of structures if they were used for Hezbollah’s military purposes or were deemed operationally necessary.
One video seen by The Times showed excavators destroying solar panels near the town of Debl in late April. The solar panels provided electricity to the village and powered a water station, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.
The Israeli military said in a statement to the Times that such actions did not meet the standards expected of Israeli soldiers. The statement only said, “Following the investigation of the incident, command actions were taken against the relevant reserve forces,” but did not specify in detail what those actions were.
Many villages across southern Lebanon have already been devastated by the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war. According to Amnesty International, more than 10,000 structures, including houses, mosques and parks, were damaged or destroyed in at least 26 municipalities.
The destruction now appears to be much more extensive, with satellite images showing fresh debris across a wide swath of terrain.
“Our house was the fruit of our life’s work,” said Fatima Abdallah, 46, a mother of five from the village of Hula near the Israeli border and currently staying in a tent inside a stadium in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Satellite images show her village has suffered extensive damage and the home she and her husband built 20 years ago appears to have been destroyed.
Videos show Israeli soldiers using methods of destruction similar to those used in Gaza, including controlled demolition methods where soldiers enter target structures to plant explosives.
The soldiers then pull the trigger from a safe distance, said Barbara Marcolini, an Amnesty International visual researcher who previously worked for The Times. The explosion sends a plume of dust and debris into the sky. As a result, entire streets are now moonscapes of white rubble and broken concrete, and little remains of where homes or businesses once stood.
Israel says its operation aims to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure buried in civilian areas. Hezbollah has long refused to deploy military assets against civilians.
Other videos and photos, including one from the Israeli side of the border, showed demolition work being carried out with bulldozers and excavators in a heavily damaged area.
Experts say this mirrors what Israel has done in Gaza, rendering vast areas uninhabitable and preventing displaced people from returning home.
“This is basically the same pattern that we recorded in Gaza and South Lebanon, and now again in South Lebanon,” Mr. Marcolini said. “This is a strategy they have in place, and they have implemented it consistently throughout the region.”
Damage is occurring across the south, but the worst damage in the south is concentrated in Shiite villages. Shiites, affiliated with the same sect as Hezbollah, make up the majority of southern Lebanon’s population, but some villages in the exclusion zone near the border are predominantly Christian or Drusein. Israel has told some Christians and Druse that they can stay if they expel Shia Muslims from southern villages.
Satellite images show stark contrasts between these regions. Photos taken near the border in April show large areas of gray rubble in the Shia-majority villages of Aita al Shaab and Hanine, while much less damage was seen in the nearby Christian-majority village of Rmeish.
The families who ran away do not know when they will return. Now they rely on messages and phone calls from friends and neighbors who have lost their homes to piece together what remains of their homes and lives.
On a recent afternoon, Ms. Abdallah quoted the Lebanese phrase, “Stones, not people,” to say that although her house was in ruins, her family was at least safe.
“Only Allah can reward us,” she said.
