The route along the road that borders the Mediterranean in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, is picturesque and, these days, desolative. The crops are abandoned and the buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes are too many to count.
Near the city of Naqoura, a Lebanese military control post, painted with the white and red colors of the national flag, is the last visible vestige of the state presence.
The soldiers stand behind concrete walls, but the road is deserted. A few minutes further south, a dozen Israeli flags indicate the beginning of the occupied territory. No one can enter without permission from Israel.
This region of the country is the heart of the Shia Muslim community of Lebanon, from where Hezbollah, the militia and political party backed by Iran, gets most of its support.
Over the past two decades, the region has suffered three Israeli military invasions as part of the wars against this group. The most recent one began in March, after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel after the murder of Iran’s supreme leader, at the start of the US-Israel war against Iran.
Last month, a BBC team joined a UN peacekeeping force humanitarian mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, one of the few ways to visit the Israeli-controlled area.
There, like in Gaza, Israel has devastated entire villages, and airstrikes and demolitions have continued even after a ceasefire was announced in June.
The convoy, led by Finnish troops belonging to UNIFIL, escorted civilians from and to Christian villages near the border. These communities were saved from Israeli attacks and invasion during the war and, with the surrounding areas now under occupation, are isolated from the rest of the country.
Our presence was authorized by the Israeli army through a de-escalation mechanism with the UN.
The area currently controlled by Israel accounts for about 5% of Lebanese territory and, in some points, extends up to 10 km from the border.
As we walk through the wall that separates the two countries, we see service roads built by Israel after the invasion, an intense movement of Israeli soldiers and residential buildings used by them.
Some were covered with nets to protect them from Hezbollah’s explosive drones.
We also heard Israeli surveillance drones in the sky and explosions in the distance, possibly from Israeli demolitions in occupied villages.
During a visit to the occupied southern Lebanon last month, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the armed forces to “take all necessary measures to prepare for a long-term presence in the area.”
Israeli officials say their goal is to establish what they call a “safe zone” to protect communities in northern Israel from rockets and drones fired by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, as well as from a possible land invasion.
According to UNIFIL, the Israeli army has established four new bases in the invaded areas, raising the total number of positions to nine.
Israeli forces had remained at five points after the invasion of southern Lebanon during the previous war against Hezbollah in 2024, in violation of the agreement that put an end to that conflict.
“In recent months, we have observed the consolidation and fortification of Israeli positions, the construction of protection infrastructure and other engineering works,” said Kandice Ardiel, UNIFIL spokesman.
“We have also observed what appears to be Israeli demolition and civil engineering activities in support of military operations in southern Lebanon,” he added.
Human rights organizations claim that some of Israel’s actions in southern Lebanon constitute deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, which could be considered a war crime. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced, not knowing when or whether they will be able to return.
In response to our questions, the Israeli military claimed that the destroyed buildings were used by Hezbollah for military purposes and that it acted in accordance with international law. He did not answer other specific questions about his actions in the occupied territories.
In June, the United States and Iran announced a preliminary agreement aimed at ending their conflict, which included the cessation of violence in Lebanon.
Since then, according to a Lebanese intelligence official, the Lebanese army has recorded more than 5,000 violations of the agreement by Israel, including airstrikes, drone attacks, bombings and almost daily incursions of Israeli soldiers into Lebanese territory beyond the occupied zone, the so-called Yellow Line.
Like in Gaza, the Israeli military justifies some of its attacks in Lebanon as operations against what it describes as imminent threats. However, in many cases, it is not clear how imminent these alleged threats are, not even if there is any.
Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, has not carried out attacks on Israel since the ceasefire came into force, but it has attacked Israeli troops operating in Lebanese territory.
“The Israelis are expanding their presence in Lebanon. They have also been burning areas and demolishing houses as the bombing continues, despite the ceasefire," the Lebanese intelligence official said.
“It’s clear they don’t want anyone to return to those villages next year, not even in the coming years.This isn’t just about Hezbollah.It’s about preventing people from coming back.”
Israeli officials have conditioned the withdrawal from Lebanon to Hezbollah’s disarmament, something the Lebanese government cannot guarantee without the group’s consent. According to observers, Hezbollah remains an important military force despite the downturns suffered in recent wars.
Both countries held direct talks that culminated in a U.S.-mediated framework agreement: Israel would withdraw from certain areas, called “pilot zones”, where Lebanese army soldiers would be deployed and Hezbollah disarmament would be verified.
Hezbollah opposes these efforts — its leader, Naim Qassem, described them last week as “humiliating surrender” — and says any debate about its weapons should only take place after Israel’s full withdrawal.
Israel, for its part, has argued that the Lebanese national army, which rejects the use of force against the group arguing that this could confront Lebanese among themselves, has not acted with sufficient determination.
The plan has not experienced any progress and no significant change is expected before the Israeli elections in late October.
“The idea of ‘pilot zones’ seems to be dead until it changes the context,” a European diplomat told me familiar with the situation. “It seems that we are heading towards a situation similar to that of Gaza. The Israelis are crushing... and, for now, they have come to stay.”
This article was originally written in English and we use an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC reporter reviewed the text before it was published. Find out more about how we use it.
