A deserted and largely destroyed village. A video suggests that an Israeli military-controlled explosion brought down scores of homes, destroyed a health clinic, and reduced a centuries-old mosque to rubble.
A week after Israel began its ground invasion of southern Lebanon as part of its multifaceted fight against Hezbollah, these are some of the first glimpses that have emerged there. The New York Times has confirmed that video and satellite images show them.
In Saturday’s commercial satellite images taken by Planet Labs, you can see tank tracks from Israel across the border to the Lebanese village of Yaroun. The Israeli military has also set up positions for tanks and other military vehicles on newly constructed banks of earth.
The Israeli military has destroyed substantial portions of two border villages over the past week: Yaroun and Maroun al-Ras, as seen in the Israeli military-filmed video above, as confirmed by The Times.
Since October, Hezbollah has been supporting Hamas by firing rockets at Israel from southern Lebanon. Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to flee their homes as a result of back-and-forth exchanges between the two sides since then.
According to Israeli officials, the ground invasion in Lebanon aims to restore displaced Israeli villagers to their northern homes and destroy Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, which is deeply rooted in villages near the border.
In recent days, Israel has increased the scale of its attacks on Hezbollah, sending ground forces into southern Lebanon from at least seven points and instructing Lebanese civilians to leave towns up to 20 miles from the border. According to Hezbollah, rocket fire has been directed at Israeli troops in both Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun.
