Israel: The “burned land” strategy in southern Lebanon and the creation of a “dead zone” to repel Hezbollah

Conflicts between his army and southern Lebanon have escalated in recent days, despite the US’s attempt to intercede on a ceasefire agreement. Dozens of people have been killed and injured by Israel’s ongoing air raids seeking to neutralize Hezbollah fighters and executives in the southern suburbs of Beirut, while pushing with infantry forces in southern Lebanon. Analysts and military experts analyse Israel’s wider strategy, saying that with the systematic destruction of villages in southern Lebanon, it seeks to create a dead zone to prevent the return of Hezbollah after the end of hostilities. According to Lebanese officials, about twenty villages near the border line between Lebanon and Israel have been destroyed by 70% since the start of mass Israeli bombings on September 23. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani It followed on 30 September a land attack by the Israeli army that blew up a large number of buildings. The creation of the “dead zone” “Israel seems to create an uninhabited dead zone throughout the border”, states Peter Harling, founder of the Beirut-based Synaps Research Center. Israeli analysts consider that Israel does not aim to take over southern Lebanon, but to ward off the threat Hezbollah poses to northern Israel. “The question is to have some guarantee that Hezbollah will not be near the border and will not be able to launch attacks on northern Israel. This is the main goal (…), we don’t want Hezbollah down there,” former military Orna Mizrahi, Tel Aviv Institute of National Security Studies (INSS) explained to AFP. The Israeli army accuses Hezbollah of placing military facilities and weapons depots within densely populated areas. Hashem Haidar, president of the Council of the South, the Lebanese body responsible for evaluating disasters, told the AFP that 18 villages located on the border with Israel have been destroyed by 70%. Israel’s goal is to create an uninhabited dead zone, says making the assessment that “45,000 residential buildings have been destroyed”. The tactics of ‘burned land’ Military issues expert Hassan Zuni explains that by destroying the villages and torching the forest areas surrounding them, Israel wants to clear the ground for Israeli monitoring points. Lebanese authorities accuse Israel of burning forest and agricultural crops by bombing them with white phosphorus. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani “This zone will be open to control and surveillance of Israelis,” says Hassan Zuni, a former commander of the Lebanese army’s war school. It will become impossible to repeat at the Lebanese border of the October 7th Gaza operation, he added. Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after 22 years of occupation. In 2006 a war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah, which never implemented the UN decision, which provides that the Shia organization must withdraw from the zone. Negotiations on a truce Today, negotiations with the US to achieve a ceasefire focus on the universal implementation of the UN decision, according to which only the Lebanese military forces and UNIFIL’s cyanides can be in this southern Lebanon zone. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani Callev Ben-Dor, a former analyst of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, explains, however, that “long-range rockets” are one of the “key threats”. “ A safety belt wouldn’t make much of a program against rockets, ” he says, “but it would prevent Hezbollah from returning to the south and repositioning its positions. ” Hassan Zuni believes that Israeli tactics are doomed to fail, “because people will return and rebuild their homes if there is a political agreement.”