HANNIYEH, Lebanon (AP) — A group of men and children gathered Friday at a vantage point overlooking their village in southern Lebanon, watching from a distance as Israeli drones descended, carrying boxes laden with explosives to be dropped on houses.
It has become a daily ritual for residents of Mansouri, who fled the village weeks ago and now are watching its destruction from the neighboring village of Hanniyeh.
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Active fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has simmered down since they entered into a truce in June, but the Israeli military now occupies large swaths of southern Lebanon, where it regularly carries out controlled demolitions.
Massive clouds of smoke and dust rise periodically from Mansouri, as the men watching debate which neighbor's house has been destroyed this time and look for signs of their own. Early Friday, the Israeli military detonated the village's public school, Lebanese state media reported.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the demolitions.
Some displaced residents blame the Lebanese government along with Israel, saying that authorities abandoned the village.
Ali Hussein Ghanem, a tobacco farmer from Mansouri, is staying with relatives in Hanniyeh along with his wife and children.
“This is something that should never happen,” he said, watching the smoke rise over his village from a distance. “Isn’t the state supposed to protect our town rather than hand it over to Israel?”
Wissam Khashabi, a beekeeper, also from Mansouri, agreed.
“We are seeing our land being destroyed,” he said. “We have lost our property, our orchards, and all our livelihoods. The state is not really doing anything.”
On Thursday, Israeli officials said they had blown up Hezbollah tunnel networks under the strategic Ali Taher ridge near the town of Nabatiyeh, in a different part of southern Lebanon. The force of the blasts caused the earth to shake in surrounding areas.
The Israeli military said the ridge contained extensive underground military infrastructure built by Hezbollah. It had been the site of clashes between Israeli forces and the militant group in recent weeks, before Israel announced it had taken “operational control” of it.
Many residents of Mansouri fled when the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began in March, but returned after the truce in June — only to flee again when the Israeli military issued a call to evacuate the village last month and began striking it again.
Israel said at the time that it was responding to ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. But it’s not clear why it has been demolishing the village since then.
Some of the displaced were taken in by relatives, while others are staying in school shelters in the nearby city of Tyre. At the height of the war, some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon. The ceasefire has allowed most of them to return home, but more than 300,000 remain displaced.
With negotiations between Israel and Lebanon — and between the U.S. and Iran — stalled, there is no political solution in sight that would allow them to go home.
The latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when the militant group fired rockets across the border two days after Israel and the U.S. launched a war on Iran.
The Lebanese government and Israel reached a framework agreement in June stating Israel will withdraw from Lebanon as Hezbollah is disarmed, but there has been little movement on implementing it.
Lebanese and Israeli officials are expected to meet for another round of talks in Rome later this month.
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Associated Press writer Abby Sewell contributed from Beirut.
