Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

[Pelican Press 0]

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*******’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

BEIRUT (AP) — Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the

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border, the tiny southern

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village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble.

******** warplanes and ground forces have

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through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, ******* says, is to debilitate

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, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah ***** into northern *******.

Even

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in the south have come under ***** from ******** forces, raising questions over whether they can remain in place.

More than 1 million people

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, emptying much of the south. Some experts say ******* may be aiming to create a depopulated buffer zone, a strategy it has

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.

Some conditions for such a zone appear already in place, according to an Associated Press analysis of satellite imagery and data collected by mapping experts that show the breadth of destruction across 11 villages next to the border.

The ******** military has said the bombardment is necessary to ********

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tunnels and other infrastructure it says the group embedded within towns. The blasts have also destroyed homes, neighborhoods and

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, where families have lived for generations.

******* says it aims to push Hezbollah far enough back that its citizens can return safely to homes in the north, but ******** officials acknowledge they don’t have a concrete plan for ensuring Hezbollah stays away from the border long term. That is a key focus in attempts by the ******* States to

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Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at *******’s Institute for National Security Studies, said *******’s immediate aim is not to create a buffer zone — but that might change.

“Maybe we’ll have no other choice than staying there until we have an arrangement that promises us that Hezbollah will not come back to the zone,” she said.

A path of destruction

Troops

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, backed by heavy bombardment that has intensified since.

Using satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC, AP identified a line of 11 villages — all within 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) of Lebanon’s border with ******* — that have been severely damaged in the past month, either by strikes or detonations of explosives ***** by ******** soldiers.

Analysis found the most intense damage in the south came in villages closest to the border, with between 100 and 500 buildings likely destroyed or damaged in each, according to Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Der Hoek of Oregon State University, experts in damage assessments.

In Ramyah, barely a single structure still stands on the village’s central hilltop, after a controlled detonation that ******** soldiers showed themselves carrying out in videos posted on social media. In the next town over, Aita al-Shaab — a village with strong Hezbollah influence — bombardment turned the hilltop with the highest concentration of buildings into a gray wasteland of rubble.

In other villages, the damage is more selective. In some, bombardment tore scars through blocks of houses; in others, certain homes were crushed while their neighbors remained intact.

Another controlled detonation leveled much of the

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, with an ********** so strong it set off earthquake alerts in *******.

In videos of the blast, Lubnan Baalbaki, conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched in disbelief as his parents’ house — containing the art collection and a library his father had built up for years — was destroyed.

“This house was a project and a dream for both of my parents,” he told the AP. His parents’ graves in the garden are now lost.

When asked whether its intention was to create a buffer zone, *******’s military said it was “conducting localized, limited, targeted raids based on precise intelligence” against Hezbollah targets. It said Hezbollah had “deliberately embedded” weapons in homes and villages.

******** journalist Danny Kushmaro even helped ***** up a home that the military said was being used to store Hezbollah ammunition. In a television segment, Kushmaro and soldiers counted down before they pressed a button, setting off a massive **********.

Videos posted online by *******’s military and individual soldiers show ******** troops planting flags on Lebanese soil. Still, ******* has not built any bases or managed to hold a permanent presence in southern Lebanon. Troops appear to move back and forth across the border, sometimes under heavy ***** from Hezbollah.

October has been the

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, with around 60 soldiers *******.

Attacks on UN peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese Army

The bombardment has been punctuated by ******** attacks on U.N. troops and the Lebanese Army — forces which, under international law, are supposed to keep the peace in the area. ******* has long complained that their presence has not prevented Hezbollah from building up its infrastructure across the south.

******* denies targeting either force.

The Lebanese military has said at least 11 of its soldiers were ******* in eight ******** strikes, either at their positions or while assisting evacuations.

The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said its

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at least 30 times since late September, blaming ******** military ***** or actions for about 20 of them, “with seven being clearly deliberate.”

A rocket likely fired by Hezbollah or an allied group hit UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura on Tuesday, causing some minor injuries, said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti.

UNIFIL has refused to leave southern Lebanon, despite calls by

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for them to go.

Experts warn that could change if peacekeepers come under greater *****.

“If you went from the U.N. taking casualties to the U.N. actually taking fatalities,” some nations contributing troops may “say ‘enough is enough,’ and you might see the mission start to crumble,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

The future of the territory is uncertain

International cease-***** efforts appear to be centered on implementing U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 *******-Hezbollah war.

It specified that ******** forces would fully withdraw from Lebanon while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL — not Hezbollah — would be the exclusive armed presence in a zone about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border.

But the resolution was not fully implemented. Hezbollah never left the border zone, and Lebanon accuses ******* of continuing to occupy small areas of its land and carrying out frequent military overflights above its territory.

During a recent visit to Beirut, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said a new agreement was needed to enforce Resolution 1701.

******* could be trying to pressure an agreement into existence through the destruction wreaked in southern Lebanon.

Yossi Yehoshua, military correspondent for the ******** daily Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote that the military needs to “entrench further its operational achievements” to push Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and mediating countries “to accept an end (of the war) under conditions that are convenient for *******.”

Some Lebanese ***** that means an occupation of parts of the south, 25 years after ******* ended its occupation there.

Lebanese parliamentarian Mark Daou, a critic of both Hezbollah and of *******’s military operations in Lebanon, said he believed ******* was trying to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and turn the Lebanese public “against the will to resist ******** incursions.”

Gowan, of the International Crisis Group, said one aim of Resolution 1701 was to give the Lebanese army enough credibility that it, not Hezbollah, would be seen “as the legitimate defender” in the south.

“That evaporates if they become (*******’s) gendarmerie of southern Lebanon,” he said.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Lujain Jo in Beirut contributed to this report.

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