Israeli bombs raze large parts of a Lebanese village to the ground, fears of a larger war

The current fighting between Israel and the Shiite Islamist movement supported by Iran is still relatively contained, but it is the most serious conflict between the two sides in 18 years. There has been considerable damage to buildings and farmland in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

Since the Gaza war broke out in October, the two sides have been engaged in fierce clashes. The hostilities have largely depopulated the border areas on both sides, and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.

The destruction in Aita al-Shaab is comparable to that of 2006, said a dozen people familiar with the situation, at a time when the escalation is raising fears of another all-out war between the heavily armed opponents.

Reuters does not have satellite imagery from 2006 to compare the two periods.

Israel says shelling from Lebanon killed 18 soldiers and 10 civilians. According to Reuters’ count, Israeli strikes killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters and 87 civilians.

At least 10 of the Hezbollah casualties were from Aita al-Shaab and dozens more from the surrounding area, according to Hezbollah obituaries seen by Reuters. Six civilians were killed in the village, a security source said.

The village, just one kilometer from the border, is one of those most heavily bombed by Israel, Hashem Haidar, head of the government’s regional development agency, the South Lebanon Council, told Reuters.

“There is great destruction in the village center, not only in the buildings that were hit and destroyed, but also in those around them,” said the mayor of Aita al-Shaab, Mohamed Srour. These are beyond repair.

Most of the village’s 13,500 residents fled in October when Israel began attacking nearby buildings and forests, he added.

The bombings have made large parts of the Lebanese border area “uninhabitable,” Haidar said.

The Israeli military said it attacked Hezbollah targets in the Aita al-Shaab region during the conflict.

In response to questions from Reuters, Israeli military spokesman Nir Dinar said Israel had acted in self-defense.

Hezbollah has made the area “uninhabitable” by hiding in civilian buildings and launching unprovoked attacks that have turned Israeli villages into “ghost towns,” Dinar said.

“Israel is attacking military targets. The fact that they are hiding in civilian infrastructure is Hezbollah’s decision,” Dinar said.

The military did not provide further details about the targets in the village. It said Hezbollah had escalated its attacks and fired over 4,800 rockets into northern Israel, “killing civilians and displacing tens of thousands.”

Hezbollah’s media office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hezbollah has declared that the expulsion of so many Israelis is a success of its campaign.

The current conflict began a day after Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally. Hezbollah has said it will stop once the Israeli assault on Gaza ends.

Located on a hilltop overlooking Israel, Aita al-Shaab is one of many Shiite villages that experts say form Hezbollah’s first line of defense against Israel.

The 2006 war began when Hezbollah fighters entered Israel from an area near Aita al-Shaab and captured two Israeli soldiers.

A source familiar with Hezbollah’s operations said the village played a strategic role in 2006 and would continue to do so in any new war. The source did not provide further details about the group’s activities there.

Seth G. Jones, vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the area is militarily important in several ways because it allows Hezbollah to fire its short-range missiles at Israel.

“If there were a ground attack, these would be front lines that Hezbollah would have to defend or try to wear down,” he said.

Hezbollah, which is significantly stronger today than it was in 2006, has announced attacks on targets just across the border from Aita al-Shaab in the current hostilities, including the Israeli village of Shtula, 1.9 kilometers away, and neighboring areas.

Satellite images of Shtula and nearby Israeli villages on June 5 show no visible damage to buildings. According to a May report in the Calcalist newspaper, the Israeli Defense Ministry said 60 houses in Shutla were damaged, including 11 that were severely damaged.

Across northern Israel, around 2,000 buildings were damaged, the country’s tax authority said. Across the border, around 2,700 houses were completely destroyed and another 22,000 damaged, which is significantly less than in the 2006 conflict, the Council for South Lebanon said. However, these figures are provisional.

The fires caused by the fighting have affected hundreds of hectares of farmland and forest on both sides of the border, authorities said.

Andreas Krieg of King’s College London said the damage in Aita al-Shaab was comparable to large-scale bombing by fighter jets or drones. Images of attacks suggested that bombs weighing up to 900 kilograms had been dropped, he said.

Hezbollah frequently announces its own attacks and has occasionally used the short-range Burkan missile, which carries a warhead of up to 500 kg. Many of the announced attacks have used weapons with much smaller warheads, such as guided anti-tank missiles, which typically carry warheads of less than 10 kg.

“Hezbollah has much … heavier warheads on its ballistic missiles that have not been used so far,” Krieg said.

Hezbollah’s goal, Krieg said, is to expel Israeli civilians.

“Hezbollah does not need to cause massive structural damage to civilian areas or civilian buildings.”