Lebanese villagers return to flattened homes after incomplete Israeli withdrawal

Israeli forces have left behind fields of destruction as they carried out their incomplete withdrawal from southern Lebanon this week.

Images and videos have been flooding social media since border villages became accessible after Israeli troops pulled out at dawn on February 18.

Israeli forces were still blowing up homes just hours before the withdrawals started taking place late on February 17.

Mass detonations have seen tens of thousands of homes reduced to rubble across south Lebanon.

Latest media reports indicated on Thursday that a large number of unexploded ordnance, spy devices, and booby-trapped infrastructure had been left behind by the Israeli army.

About two dozen bodies were found in Kfar Kila, Mays al-Jabal, Odaisseh, and Markaba over the past hours.

Residents In Odaisseh, Kfar Kila, and several other villages, say very little is left standing. What has not been entirely decimated has been severely damaged.

“The entire village has been reduced to rubble. It's a disaster zone,” Alaa al-Zein, a south Lebanon resident was quoted as saying.

The Israeli army has maintained its occupation of at least five key locations in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces continue to occupy Labbouneh, Mount Blat, Owayda Hill, Aaziyyeh, and Hammamis Hill.

Tel Aviv has violated the deal over 1,000 times with relentless attacks on Lebanon since it was reached in November.

Lebanon has rejected the continued presence of Israeli troops, a violation of the ceasefire and the withdrawal deadline.

In a joint statement with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, President Joseph Aoun said the Arab country will call on the UN Security Council to pressure Israel to fully withdraw its forces.

Senior authorities in Beirut say they will “adopt all means” to force the occupation forces out of Lebanon.

US, France propose replacing Israeli army with mercenaries in south: Report 

Meanwhile, a recent media report said Paris and Washington were suggesting that private contractors potentially deploy in south Lebanon.

“France and the US are trying to encourage Israel to fully withdraw from south Lebanon by suggesting the deployment of a peacekeeping force or even private security companies in strategic areas,” the report said.

French President Emmanuel Macron “personally intervened, contacting Aoun and informing the Israelis” that Lebanon fully rejects its continued presence in the south, a French diplomatic source said

“France offered to deploy French troops or UN peacekeepers at the sites instead,” the source added.

However, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji said that Israel had rejected the French plan.

France has previously suggested deploying UNIFIL forces under French military command to replace Israeli troops in the south. Both Lebanon and the Israeli entity rejected the plan.

The Lebanese border villages bore the brunt of Israeli airstrikes for the first 11 months of the war.

Lebanese who were displaced at the very start of the war in October 2023 have only now been able to head back to their homes on the border strip due to the Israeli army’s ground offensive and fierce clashes with the Hezbollah resistance fighters.

The attacks expanded much deeper into the south in September 2024, when the fighting turned into an all-out war after Israel’s pager terror attacks and the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

After suffering heavy losses at the hands of Hezbollah, a ceasefire came into effect. However, it did not stop Israeli troops from continuing daily attacks and blowing up homes and infrastructure.

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