Image source, Getty Images
Damage, destruction and fear along the Israeli-Lebanese border
- author, Ahmed Noor and Peter Ball, BBC World Service Visual Journalism Team
- role, BBC Arabic and BBC World Service
A BBC analysis has revealed the scale of the damage caused by nine months of fighting between Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel.
Satellite photos, radar imagery and records of military activity show that thousands of buildings and large tracts of open space on the Israeli-Lebanese border have been damaged, forcing entire communities to flee.
So far the sides have not yet erupted into all-out war, but there is evidence that near-daily attacks are devastating communities in both Israel and Lebanon.
The current fighting began the day after the Israel-Gaza war broke out, when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions in a supposed show of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel’s military offensive against Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Image source, Getty Images
Data collected by the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Events Data Project (Acled) and analysed by the BBC suggests that the two sides carried out a combined 7,491 cross-border attacks between October 8, 2023 and July 5, 2024. These figures indicate that Israel carried out roughly five times as many attacks as Hezbollah.
The attacks have forced more than 90,000 people to flee their homes in Lebanon, and Israeli attacks have killed around 100 civilians and 366 Hezbollah fighters, according to the United Nations.
Israeli officials say Hezbollah attacks have forced 60,000 civilians to abandon their homes and killed 33 people, including 10 civilians.
Damage to buildings in southern Lebanon
The analysis found that more than 60 percent of Lebanese border communities had suffered some damage from Israeli air and artillery strikes, with more than 3,200 buildings possibly damaged as of July 10.
The findings, compiled by Corey Shea of the City University of New York Graduate School of Engineering, compared two separate images and found that changes in building height and structure suggested damage.
The towns of Aita el-Shaab, Kfar Kila and Blida appear to be the hardest hit.
Aita el-Shaab has been hit by at least 299 attacks since October, causing widespread damage, Akred said.
Buildings along the town’s main roads, including restaurants and shops, were particularly hard hit.
The BBC spoke to Mayor Aita El Shaab, who said the town looked “as if it had been hit by an earthquake”.
Majed Tehiny said 17 people were killed in the Israeli attack, including two townspeople.
He said he left Aita el-Shaab with his family shortly after fighting began last October but returned roughly every two weeks, mainly to attend funerals.
“Every time I visit it seems to change. The scenes of destruction are just horrific,” he told the BBC.
“Aita’s houses have been reduced to mere buildings. Those that were destroyed have been reduced to rubble. Those that remain are uninhabitable,” he added.
Tehini recalled seeing the destruction in the town mainly during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, but said the latest bombing had caused even more destruction.
He explained that all infrastructure, including the power grid and water systems, was damaged.
“Our house is still standing, but it’s just cosmetic. Everything is ruined,” he added.
The town centre is affected
According to Akred, more than 200 attacks targeted Kfar Kila, damaging several supermarkets and service shops in the town center.
Akred said the town of Blida had also been hit by at least 130 attacks since October, damaging several buildings and a pharmacy.
The damage is concentrated in the town centre, where the main services, shops and facilities are located.
Dr Burku Ozcelik, a senior Middle East security researcher at RUSSI, said Israel was targeting border towns because they were areas where Hezbollah had deep roots.
“Israel believes it has ample documented evidence showing the presence of fortifications and a network of tunnels in the vicinity of the residence.”
She said Israel was targeting the area to send a message to Hezbollah that it “should not be there,” but she thought it was unlikely that Hezbollah would withdraw.
“The U.S. has been trying to find a compromise, including getting Hezbollah to withdraw four miles from the border. Hezbollah has refused.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC it carried out strikes on military targets “to eliminate the Hezbollah threat to Israel, its people and their homes”.
Israel fire damage
Across the border, buildings in northern Israel were also destroyed in attacks from the other side.
Israeli media have reported that more than 1,000 buildings have been damaged since October. The Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
But the big deal here is the destruction of the land.
Using data provided by Dr He Yin from Kent State University, the BBC looked at the amount of land affected by massive wildfires sparked by cross-border attacks.
Dr Yin crunched data from publicly available satellite images taken in near-infrared and shortwave infrared (outside the visible spectrum) to identify areas suspected to have been burned.
This was verified against satellite images and local news reports.
Large areas of land have been burned in both countries, but the BBC estimates that Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have been the hardest hit, with around 55 square kilometres (21 square miles) of damage in the country, compared with 40 square kilometres in Lebanon.
Recent estimates by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority put the figure at 87 square kilometers.
The pattern of damage shows that many of the burned areas are located far from the border, reflecting Hezbollah’s use of large quantities of unguided munitions, which were fired at civilian areas and military bases not adjacent to the border. If Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system detects that the missiles will not land in a populated area, it will not intercept them, and the missiles will land in the open.
The result will be massive damage to agricultural land, farms and forests, which Dr Ozcelik said was a deliberate act on Hezbollah’s part.
“Some believe the cause of the fire is the type of weapons being used, but others believe it is also due to Hezbollah’s attempt to create confusion and fear among the Israeli population and put pressure on the Israeli government.”
Dr Ozcelik added that the scale of the evacuation was “unprecedented in the Israeli context.”
The scale of the damage is clear in photos from the Katzrin settlement in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where a burnt area larger than the settlement itself emerged after a barrage of rocket fire in early June.
About 20 miles (30 kilometers) to the northeast lives Tsahi Gabay, a farmer and member of the local response team.
He is one of the few Israelis remaining at the border. His wife and two children, aged five and seven, fled the town of Kfar Yuval, just metres from the border, and have been living in a small hotel room for the past nine months. Gabbai sees them only once a week.
Image source, Getty Images
He has witnessed the fires that are devastating large swaths of northern Israel.
“Fearing rocket attacks, people left the vegetation alone, and it withered by spring. The drones [drone]”The rockets and missiles that were fired quickly sparked massive fires in Galilee. The whole area was on fire. We had to fight the flames, put them out and prevent further damage to fields and businesses,” he added.
Image source, Getty Images
Fire isn’t the only danger.
Neighbors Barak and Mira Ayalon were killed in January when a missile ripped through the wall of their living room as they were eating lunch in their kitchen.
Gabbai has known the family for years.
“We grew up together. Removing a body in those conditions… these were people I knew well… it wasn’t easy,” he sighed.
A small number of townspeople stayed behind to keep their fruit trees from dying, but about 90 percent fled, knowing they may never get a harvest again.
Hezbollah did not respond to requests for comment, but the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said Wednesday that Israel’s “continued targeting of civilians” would prompt Hezbollah fighters to target new “settlements” with missiles, and warned Israel that any tanks entering Lebanon would be destroyed.
In a televised address on July 10, he also reiterated his pledge to end Hamas attacks if a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas.
White phosphorus
Most of the 40 square kilometres of land that the BBC estimates has been affected by the fires in Lebanon is near or adjacent to the security barrier between the two countries.
Lebanon’s Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan told the BBC that 55 towns across the border had been affected by the Israeli fires.
He accused Israel of using white phosphorus and other munitions and turning the area into a barren and abandoned place.
White phosphorus is a chemical that ignites quickly when it comes into contact with oxygen. It can get on your skin and clothes and burn you down to the bone.
International campaign group Human Rights Watch confirmed that white phosphorus munitions were used in several populated areas of southern Lebanon, including Al-Bustan.
It said Israel’s use of white phosphorus munitions was “unlawful and indiscriminate in densely populated areas.”
The Israel Defense Forces disputes this, saying its use of white phosphorus munitions to create a smoke screen is “legal under international law” and that the rounds are not used in populated areas “with certain exceptions.”
Concerns about escalation
According to Akred’s data, the intensity of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah has not abated since October 8, with the number of attacks between the two sides increasing slightly in recent months.
Dr Ozcelik said he feared further escalation of fighting could escalate into all-out war and even lead Iran to go head-to-head with Israel to protect Hezbollah.
But she expressed optimism, saying she thought both Israel and Hezbollah were trying to avoid that outcome.
“Both sides are very carefully calibrating their cross-border approaches to avoid misfires, human error and miscalculation.”
Additional reporting by Karine Trubay, Michael Cheval, Joya Belbery and Daniele Palumbo
