Mapping the destruction: How Israel ‘wiped out’ Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil

In the historic heart of Bint Jbeil, a 400-year-old Great Mosque once stood as a testament to the city’s enduring cultural memory. Today, it lies in ruins, alongside more than 1,500 buildings systematically destroyed by Israeli forces in an escalating military campaign in southern Lebanon. Through the meticulous analysis of satellite imagery and open-source intelligence, a visual investigation by aljazeera.net’s fact-checking team has revealed a deliberate Israeli policy to render southern Lebanon permanently uninhabitable. Recommended Stories list of 4 items end of list The border villages and towns of southern Lebanon are witnessing a relentless military escalation beyond conventional warfare. Israeli operations have expanded into a policy of systematically “wiping out” civilian homes, residential neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure, analysis of the map shows. This pattern has drawn direct comparisons to the Israeli military’s brutal tactics in the Gaza Strip, which lies in ruins. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people remain forcibly displaced. Legal experts, analysts and local officials warn that the ultimate objective is the “emptying of residential geography”, carving out a depopulated “buffer zone” at the forward edge of the border that permanently prevents displaced residents from returning and establishes a violently enforced demographic reality on the ground. Israel says it wants to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to prevent attacks from Hezbollah. …