{"id":327566,"date":"2026-06-02T05:27:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T05:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=327566"},"modified":"2026-06-04T06:37:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:37:37","slug":"looting-and-destruction-are-israeli-armys-primary-mission-in-lebanon-soldiers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=327566","title":{"rendered":"Looting and destruction are Israeli army\u2019s \u2018primary mission\u2019 in Lebanon, soldiers say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nadav Rapaport \u2013 Middle East Eye June 1, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon<\/a> have engaged in widespread looting and destruction, according to testimonies published by Haaretz<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe method was always the same,\u201d one Israeli reservist told the newspaper, describing how goods taken from Lebanese villages were transferred into Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there was also another mission – an unofficial one: taking out all the loot,\u201d the reservist said.<\/p>\n

The \u201cspoils\u201d would be unloaded at the outpost, he added, so they\u2019d be waiting for the soldiers when they went home.<\/p>\n

The reservist said his unit operated in a wealthy village, where soldiers would first fire at homes to ensure there were no Hezbollah fighters inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we understood the area was safe, the real mission would begin – locating valuable things,\u201d he said, adding that soldiers often argued over what to take.<\/p>\n

According to the testimony, troops looted rugs, armchairs, motorbikes and heaters from private homes, while shops were stripped of expensive goods.<\/p>\n

“Even the hand soap at the outpost came from Lebanon,” he told Haaretz.<\/p>\n

“At any given moment, you could see soldiers walking around the village carrying with them civilians\u2019 belongings. It felt like the primary mission.”<\/p>\n

Discipline problems ‘at highest ranks\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The testimony comes amid mounting reports of large-scale looting by Israeli soldiers since fighting escalated between Israel and Hezbollah in March, following the joint Israeli-US war on Iran.<\/p>\n

Last month, Haaretz reported<\/a> that Israeli troops had looted sofas, televisions and motorbikes from homes in southern Lebanon, while army commanders largely turned a blind eye.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported<\/a> that military leaders were struggling to deal with the scale of the looting.<\/p>\n

Israeli army chief of staff Eyal Zamir said<\/a> last month that \u201cthe phenomenon of looting, if it exists, is disgraceful and could stain the entire (military)”.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf such incidents occurred, we will investigate them,\u201d he told senior commanders during a military conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not willing for us to become an army of looters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broadcaster Channel 14 later reported<\/a> that Zamir had asked commanders operating in Lebanon to sign a letter committing to preventing looting.<\/p>\n

One commander reportedly refused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not sign the letter,\u201d he told the channel, adding that \u201cthe discipline problems in the IDF (Israeli army) begin at the highest ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looting on all fronts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The reservist who spoke to Haaretz said most senior commanders did not care about the looting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attitude was that there was no problem with looting as long as you didn\u2019t get hurt. The higher command didn\u2019t really try to stop us either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After reports of looting emerged last month, the reservist said his commander ordered soldiers to stop stealing – before entering shops himself and smashing items \u201cso the soldiers would have nothing left to loot\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the reservist, no soldier was punished for looting.<\/p>\n

He added that some troops gave the stealing a \u201creligious justification\u201d, while others argued that since homes and shops were already being destroyed, there was no reason to leave valuables behind.<\/p>\n

It felt like the army \u201chad become a Viking army\u201d, he said, by letting soldiers loot \u201cso they stay satisfied and keep fighting\u201d.<\/p>\n

Adam Raz, an Israeli historian who wrote about the looting of Palestinian property during the 1948 Nakba, said<\/a> last month that \u201clooting was part of every Israeli war\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s new is the total indifference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe senior command turns a blind eye, the criminality continues, and the crime achieves its goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said<\/a> reports from Lebanon pointed to \u201ca clear pattern of theft during Israeli military operations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rights group said Israeli forces had been \u201craiding houses, rummaging through belongings, and looting residents\u2019 money and personal effects\u201d, adding that the practice appeared to have become \u201can effective policy of the state and the army\u201d.<\/p>\n

Euro-Med said it had also documented looting in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

In January, Israeli forces were reported to have seized around 250 goats from Syrian territory and transferred them to Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

The other mission: destruction<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Despite the US-announced ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah last month, fighting has continued.<\/p>\n

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), around 100,000<\/a> Lebanese have fled their homes in recent days for fear of Israeli strikes.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces have killed at least 3,020 people since the latest assault began in March, including 824 since the 17 April so-called ceasefire, according to the Lebanese health ministry.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has killed at least 21 soldiers since March, including eight since 17 April, mostly invading troops stationed inside Lebanon.<\/p>\n

However, testimonies obtained by Haaretz suggest fighting Hezbollah was not always the army\u2019s primary objective.<\/p>\n

Another reservist told the newspaper that the military\u2019s main mission in southern Lebanon was the destruction of homes.<\/p>\n

He described a speech delivered by a commander before the ground invasion as \u201ca pagan ritual\u201d, adding that he had heard similar rhetoric during previous assaults in Gaza and Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we entered the village, there were no militants. The houses were empty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no fighting there at all – only operations to flatten homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said this has been the army mission for the past two years, \u201cthe Israel Defence Forces for house demolitions\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said soldiers also entered homes searching for valuables to steal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no reason other than revenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to the reservist, homes, schools and clinics were destroyed without any stated military justification. Much of the demolition work, he said, was carried out by private contractors, including \u201cextreme settlers\u201d as well as Bedouin and Druze workers.<\/p>\n

For religious soldiers in the unit, he added, destroying homes was seen as \u201cthe ultimate mission\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever someone talked about returning to Israel,\u201d the battalion commander would reply: \u201cThis is Israel too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The drive toward a Greater Israel goes hand-in-hand with rampant criminality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":327567,"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":[58,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","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\/327566","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=327566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327568,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327566\/revisions\/327568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/327567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}