The Lebanese village of Yaroun at the weekend.
A town that was abandoned and badly damaged. Dozens of homes, a damaged clinic and a centuries-old mosque are now little more than rubble – demolished, the video suggests, in what appears to be an explosion controlled by the Israeli army.
These are some of the first glimpses of southern Lebanon, a week after Israel launched an offensive there as part of its separate war against Hezbollah. They can be seen in video and satellite images confirmed by the New York Times.
Source: Satellite image by Planet Labs, Oct. 5
Tank tracks from Israel that crossed the border into the Lebanese village of Yaroun are visible in satellite images taken Saturday by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite provider. So are the recently built land banks where the Israeli military has set up locations for tanks and other military vehicles.
In the past week, Israeli forces destroyed large parts of two border towns: Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun, seen in the video above captured by Israeli forces and confirmed by The Times.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets at Israel from southern Lebanon since last October in cooperation with Hamas. Since then, the two sides have been trading back and forth that have displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israelis.
Israeli officials say the aim of the ground attack in Lebanon is to destroy Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, located near the border, and to return displaced Israeli citizens to their homes in the north.
Israel has increased its attacks on Hezbollah in recent days, sending ground forces to southern Lebanon from at least seven points and ordering Lebanese citizens to evacuate towns within 20 kilometers of the border. Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli forces in Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun with rockets.
Sources: Israeli Army, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, OpenStreetMap
Note: Crossing locations are based on a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery from Planet Labs.
Written by the New York Times
The battle took place when Israeli forces were fighting Hamas militants on the other side of the border, in the Gaza Strip.
In southern Lebanon, videos and photos show Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets and setting up positions near homes. One video showed soldiers raising an Israeli flag over a destroyed park in Maroun al-Ras.
Both Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun were empty before the Israeli army launched the attack, according to local officials. The mayor of Yaroun, Ali Qassem Tafeh, and the former mayor of this village, Hassan Awada, said that most of the residents left when the strikes started last year.
Even before the ground attack, months of rocket fire were damaging Yaroun, this satellite image from the summer shows.
But a new satellite image shows fresh devastation from the attack, with an entire section of Yaroun flattened after Israeli army vehicles destroyed the area.
After a week of bombings, strikes and clean-ups, buildings appear more damaged than ever. Large areas of land also appear to have been burned.
Source: Satellite image by Planet Labs
Similar scenes of destruction, including newly erected buildings and a devastated area, can be seen in nearby Maroun al-Ras, where Israeli military vehicles were also seen.
Maroun al-Ras has seen war before: It was the site of a major war when Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006. As in Yaroun, many buildings in this town had been destroyed by Israeli strikes and artillery in the months before the latest ground attack.
The satellite image shows significant clarity.
Some buildings appeared that had just been damaged, and part of the village was flattened. Another flat area was a park with a mosque that was a replica of the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Source: Satellite image by Planet Labs
Another Israeli army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive military situation, told The Times that most of the demolitions were carried out to eliminate threats posed by Hezbollah. He said that weapons were found in houses and that the towns in the south were used as “terrorist areas”.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had destroyed a battlefield in a residential building in Maroun al-Ras, including pictures of weapons and a rocket launcher it said was found there.
In an interview, the United Nations special secretary for the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, condemned the level of destruction as “exploitation” by the military.
“The humanitarian law is clear,” he said. “Public objects, homes, cultural buildings are protected under the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Convention.”
Mr. Rajagopal said that although it is possible that Hezbollah used people’s homes or places, Israel must show that these places are an ongoing military threat. “Rivals are nowhere to be seen,” he said, “and instead we see Israeli forces carrying out controlled demolitions.”
One video shared on social media and verified by The Times shows what appears to be a controlled explosion that destroyed a mosque inside Yaroun.
That mosque was more than 300 years old, said the mayor of Yaroun, Mr. Tafeh. “This is the main mosque where daily prayers are held, and where holidays and events are celebrated,” he said.
Two more mosques were recently destroyed in Maroun al-Ras, satellite images showed. Asked why the mosques were being destroyed, an Israeli army officer said he did not know.
Yaroun’s Catholic church was also destroyed, along with a local clinic and a shrine revered by Muslims and Christians, according to Hussein Jaafar, the deputy mayor.
Satellite images showed that a large part of the roof of the Catholic church had collapsed. Some of the damage was caused by Israeli bombing in November, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
Source: Satellite image by Planet Labs
Despite the destruction, the mayor of Yaroun vowed that the residents would return.
“This is the land of our ancestors,” said Mr. Tafeh. “We will not abandon you.”
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