Dozens of towns and villages in Lebanon have suffered severe levels of destruction as part of Israel’s offensive against the Hezbollah militia, the state-run Lebanese news agency NNA reported on Tuesday, citing its own sources.
NNA reported that entire streets or neighbourhoods in 37 towns have been obliterated. The report stated that 40,000 houses and apartments have been destroyed, with the southern region of the country being particularly affected.
At least 29 villages have been “completely destroyed” by Israel, in a 120-kilometre strip across the south of the country from the Naqoura region in the west to Shebaa in the Hasbaya district in the east, Mohamed Chamseddine, research director at the Lebanese polling institute Information International, said in an interview with the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.
The Israeli military emphasizes that it only targets buildings used by Hezbollah, the Shiite militia allied with Iran, as hideouts or weapons depots.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war last year, Hezbollah has regularly fired rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, forcing tens of thousands of Israelis to leave their homes.
Following almost a year of cross-border exchanges, Israel ramped up its campaign against Hezbollah to facilitate the evacuees’ return, launching a ground offensive in Lebanon in October and intensifying its airstrikes across the country.
The conflict has had a devastating impact on the humanitarian situation in Lebanon, with more than 800,000 people having been displaced within the country due to the attacks, according to the United Nations.
The UN observer mission, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), stationed in the south of the country has also reported severe destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure.
Some roads have become impassable, according to a statement by the UN peacekeepers. Peacekeeping forces are clearing debris and repairing roads to ensure safe supply routes to their bases, they said.
Israel intercepts drone by Dead Sea
Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force shot down a hostile drone near the symbolically significant Masada fortress by the Dead Sea, according to the armed forces.
Sirens sounded in the morning at the popular archaeological site on the south-western shore of the Dead Sea after a drone entered Israeli airspace from the east, they said.
The Iranian-backed Shiite Islamic Resistance in Iraq later claimed responsibility for at least six attacks on Israel during Tuesday, including “a vital target” in the south of the country, which is likely to be Masada.
Militias in Iraq allied with Iran have repeatedly carried out drone attacks on Israel in recent weeks and months.
The ruins of the Masada fortress, which are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, are an important testament to Jewish history in the region.
WHO to evacuate 100 patients from Gaza
In Gaza, where fighting between Israeli forces and the Palestinian extremist group Hamas continues after more than one year of war, the World Health Organization (WHO) is set to evacuate some 100 patients on Wednesday, in the first such operation in about five weeks.
The evacuees will include those injured in the Gaza war as well as chronically-ill patients, the WHO said.
Initially, patients will be brought to Egypt via the southern border crossing of Kerem Shalom and Israel.
Most are then to be flown to the United Arab Emirates, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Palestinian Territories, in a video conference. About 30 people will be transported to Romania, he added.
Since the closure Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt in the southern city of Rafah at the beginning of May, only 282 patients have been brought out of the Gaza Strip, Peeperkorn said.
However, between 12,000 and 14,000 additional patients, who are suffering from burns, spinal injuries, amputations or cancer, among other ailments, also need to be treated abroad, he said.
The WHO representative called on Israel to give security guarantees to enable the permanent transfer of patients, instead of occasional medical evacuations. “We cannot continue the way we do now,” Peeperkorn said.
Four killed in West Bank
Four Palestinians have been killed during Israeli military operations in the north of the occupied West Bank, Palestinian sources said.
According to the Health Ministry in Ramallah, two men died in a drone strike south of Jenin. Two additional Palestinians were reported to have been killed near Tubas.
The Israeli army announced that “a cell of armed terrorists” was attacked with a drone south of Jenin.
Jenin is considered a stronghold of militant Palestinians in the West Bank.
The already tense situation in the West Bank has significantly worsened since the massacre by Hamas and other Palestinian extremist groups, which resulted in 1,200 deaths on October 7, 2023, and the consequent start of the Gaza War.
Since then, according to the Health Ministry in Ramallah, 738 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank due to Israeli military operations, armed confrontations and attacks by extremists.
