{"id":326561,"date":"2026-05-01T06:46:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=326561"},"modified":"2026-05-02T05:11:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:11:51","slug":"israeli-officers-say-lebanon-mission-focused-on-systematic-destruction-of-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=326561","title":{"rendered":"Israeli officers say Lebanon mission focused on \u2018systematic destruction’ of buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mera Aladam \u2013 Middle East Eye April 30, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>

An Israeli soldier walks near a military vehicle, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon boundary, 26 April 2026<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Israeli<\/a> army’s mission in southern Lebanon<\/a>\u00a0is now focused on the \u201csystematic destruction\u201d of buildings rather than combat, officers have told Haaretz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the report on Wednesday, the military is operating under a plan to demolish predominantly Shia villages in an effort they believe would prevent residents from returning.<\/p>\n

As part of the campaign, troops are assigned designated zones to demolish, with commanders required to record the number of structures destroyed each day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only mission is to continue the destruction,\u201d one commander told Haaretz. \u201cThere are no other tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another officer disputed Israeli military claims that operations are aimed at destroying \u201cterrorist infrastructure\u201d, saying: \u201cThese are not terrorist infrastructures – everything is being destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, a separate officer said there is no blanket order to demolish all structures, insisting the focus is on underground networks, weapons, and surveillance and communications systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are operating pragmatically, according to operational need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Lebanon\u2019s National Council for Scientific Research<\/a>, around 40,000 housing units have been partially or completely destroyed since the beginning of March. On some days, more than 1,000 homes have been damaged or flattened, with entire neighbourhoods bombed.<\/p>\n

Drone footage posted online has shown entire villages in southern Lebanon rigged and destroyed in controlled explosions by the military.<\/p>\n

Private contractors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Several soldiers told Haaretz that demolitions are being carried out by private contractors, who are paid according to the scale of destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe companies profit based on the number of houses [destroyed],\u201d one soldier said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re there to provide security, at risk to our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said there is \u201cno logic\u201d behind the missions, as soldiers face increased exposure to Hezbollah drone attacks while securing demolitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand exposed, guarding demolitions while drones are in the air,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Since 2 March, Israeli forces have killed at least 2,290 people in Lebanon, including 100 rescue workers and healthcare personnel, and wounded 7,544, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced nationwide.<\/p>\n

Although a truce was announced by the US in mid-April, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have continued, prompting renewed fighting with Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces also remain stationed up to around 10km inside Lebanese territory, with continued reports of strikes on civilians and ongoing demolitions.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Troops tell Haaretz the only task is the destruction of everything in predominantly Shia villages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326589,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326561\/revisions\/326589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}