Zone of destruction
The Israeli military claims to have limited goals for its southern Lebanon invasion. But an NBC News investigation found widespread destruction in areas occupied by the IDF.
When Israel launched its invasion of southern Lebanon in September, it publicly set narrow goals for the operation: “limited, localized,” with “targeted ground raids” aimed at stopping cross-border fire and degrading Hezbollah’s command structure.
But an NBC News investigation found that the Israel Defense Forces have created a zone of widespread destruction along Lebanon’s border with Israel — destroying 42% of the buildings in the areas it has seized. To reach these findings, NBC News verified soldiers’ social media posts and examined satellite images as well as Sentinel-1 satellite radar data provided by Corey Scher of the CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.
In a statement to NBC News, an IDF spokesperson said Hezbollah embeds military assets in and beneath civilian areas and cultural sites.
“The IDF will continue to destroy terrorist infrastructure as needed to achieve the war’s objectives,” the statement added. “The IDF does not seek to cause excessive harm to civilian infrastructure and strikes only based on security needs and the safety of Israeli civilians.”
Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese militia and political party backed by Iran, began firing missiles into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023. It said it was supporting Hamas, which launched a terror attack in Israel a day earlier, drawing a response from the IDF and sparking more than a year’s worth of back-and-forth fire.
The two sides agreed to a ceasefire deal on Tuesday, drawing to a close a conflict that has displaced 96,000 Israelis and 1.4 million Lebanese, according to their respective governments. The fighting has killed over 3,000 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry, and more than 70 people in Israel.
On Sept. 30, the Israeli military launched its ground invasion of Lebanon. The IDF ordered civilians in much of southern Lebanon to evacuate as it increased its strikes across the country.
The operation has resulted in widespread destruction. At least 8,776 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, according to Sentinel-1 satellite radar detection.
In other regions of the country, the damage is scattered — the result of air and artillery strikes. Along the border with Israel, most of the damage is concentrated in the areas occupied by the IDF.
In zones occupied by Israeli forces, 5,624 buildings have been damaged or destroyed — over 41.9% of the total number of structures. The pace of damage accelerated significantly since the invasion began. More buildings were damaged in the past month than in the preceding year of conflict.
In the town of Yaroun, the data shows tight clusters of damaged and destroyed buildings. Over 60% of the village has been demolished.
Satellite imagery and videos posted to social media show how this destruction unfolded.
Satellite imagery shows armored vehicles crossing the border from Israel and flattening large sections of the town.
In nearly every town in southern Lebanon the IDF has occupied, soldiers have posted videos of demolitions. Here, an IDF combat engineering unit detonates explosives in the hilltop village of Mhaibib.
The damage is total — nearly 90% of the village is destroyed.
The IDF says border villages like Ayta ash Shab are home to tunnels and weapons stashes, and describes demolitions as “destroying terrorist infrastructure.”
Ayta ash Shab is one of six border villages NBC News identified where the IDF has destroyed or damaged more than half of the town — including nearly all of their town centers.
Data sources
NBC News analysis based on a damage analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University; Microsoft building footprints; satellite images from Planet Labs; attacks and advances into Lebanon from the Institute for the Study of War and AEI's Critical Threats Project.
Bryan Gallion, Jean Lee, Tavleen Tarrant, Marin Scott and Larissa Gao contributed.