Feature: Lebanese Villagers Mourn Erased Hometowns Upon Return

At the entrance of the village Kafr Kila, Nadia Sheet, in her fifties, stood silently. Gazing across the ruins, Sheet, who was forced to flee more than one year ago, struggled to locate where her home once stood.

"I don't know where my house was. No road leads me there, no landmark to guide me. Everything is gone, as if we never existed here," she told Xinhua, summarizing the despair engulfing her village and other front-line villages in south Lebanon.

The loss, she said, goes beyond material destruction. It is the erasure of hope for a safe return.

"What happened here is beyond imagination," she continued. "This land where we were born and raised has turned barren. No homes, roads, electricity, water, or trees; just an empty desert coated in the color of smoke."

Since Sept. 23, 2024, the Israeli army has expanded its military offensive on Lebanon, launching a two-phase ground operation along the entire 120-km border. In some areas, the incursion extended more than five km deep into Lebanese territory.

Hashem Haidar, head of Lebanon's South Council, responsible for assessing damage from Israeli strikes, told Xinhua that 63 villages in the border region had been affected. "Of these, 29 front-line villages have been completely obliterated, homes, roads, orchards, and infrastructure wiped off the map."

Haidar said these villages were now uninhabitable for years to come, adding that reconstruction would require immense effort and a well-structured rebuilding plan.

Military analyst Brigadier General Abdul Rahman Shehaitli told Xinhua that Israel's destruction of these villages serves a strategic purpose, establishing a buffer zone approximately three km deep along its border with Lebanon.

"The scale of destruction was meant, first, to punish border communities seen as supportive of Hezbollah," he explained. "Second, it aims to delay their return as long as possible. Clearing rubble and rebuilding infrastructure will take years."

According to Shehaitli, this effectively creates an uninhabited buffer zone under the control of the Lebanese Army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for the foreseeable future.

Abbas Awada, mayor of Naqoura in southwest Lebanon, estimated the destruction of rear-line villages like his to be over 70 percent, whereas front-line villages saw devastation ranging from 85 percent to total annihilation.

In Mays El Jabal, a village east of Lebanon, Mayor Abdul Monem Choucair detailed the assault.

"More than 5,000 heavy shells, cluster bombs, and phosphorus munitions hit our village, along with over 500 airstrikes, followed by bulldozing of homes and public buildings."

Lebanon's Health Ministry reported 4,047 deaths and 16,638 injuries from Israeli bombardments across the country.

According to Information International, a Beirut-based research firm, the direct and indirect costs of the Israeli assault on Lebanon have reached 11.2 billion U.S. dollars. If fully funded, reconstruction is expected to take at least four years, it said.
-XINHUA