BEIRUT: Like many other towns along the southern border, Hala Farah’s hometown has been entirely demolished by Israeli soldiers. The Lebanese mother-of-two is gathering pictures and films to preserve its memory.
Satellite images and photos collected by AFP journalists on both sides of the border and testimony from locals and officials reveal massive wreckage in dozens of Lebanese towns and villages since the start of the Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2.
In response to Hezbollah’s attack, Israel launched major airstrikes and a ground offensive in the south, where the Iran-backed militia is influential and which borders Israel.
And while a ceasefire was declared on 17 April, the devastation and demolitions and bulldozing in southern areas have only been stepped up hitting homes, infrastructure, schools, places of worship and agriculture.
Israel’s military, which has at times issued evacuation warnings ahead of strikes, has consistently said that assaults are aimed at Hezbollah sites and operatives, not at civilians. But Farah, 33, said everything in her hometown, Yarun, less than a kilometre from Israel, had been razed. All that’s left are memories and some pictures the neighbours and we are trying to gather… so we can tell our children what Yarun was like,” she told AFP.
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