Naqoura, southern Lebanon – Wearing an olive inexperienced jacket and denims, municipal head Abbas Awada stood after to the residue of the nation house the place he lived along with his spouse and two kids for the extreme 15 years.
The soft-spoken, charismatic, 40-something Awada old to welcome the town citizens within the nation house and host fat nation gatherings along with his spouse.
The home survived greater than a 12 months of conflict, together with a 66-day invasion, which noticed Israeli wind raids spoil a lot of Lebanon’s infrastructure.
It used to be later a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese workforce Hezbollah started in November that Israeli forces demolished the house the place Awada’s kids had grown up.
From the presen Hezbollah and Israel started preventing on October 8, 2023, till a ceasefire started on November 27, 2024, Israel killed just about 4,000 family and left waves of wreck throughout Lebanon, specifically within the south.
And, in spite of the ceasefire, the Israeli army has persisted to assault Lebanon.
A ‘ceasefire’ in identify handiest?
In step with the ceasefire pledge, which used to be to begin with prepared to extreme 60 days, Hezbollah used to be intended to retreat north of the Litani River, which runs throughout south Lebanon. Israel used to be additionally required to take back its troops from Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have been to enter the the south.
Many in Lebanon believed the ceasefire would carry an finish to Israeli assaults. However Israel has stored attacking, justifying its movements as looking to “dismantle and destroy” Hezbollah, a self-declared attempt.
Amongst its movements used to be intentionally destroying properties in southern villages like Naqoura, unfortunate family who fled the violence and have been hoping to go back to their properties when it restrained.
“I still see it as it was,” Awada stated softly, taking a look at his house.
He pointed on the front and described the home’s order. The place he stated the kitchen and eating room as soon as stood used to be a cluster of concrete and metal – an Israeli bulldozer had toppled his house’s partitions.
A tv nonetheless stood a number of the wreckage, fastened on an uncovered front room wall and riddled with bullet holes.
“They just wanted to destroy,” he stated.
He has now not taken his kids, elderly 11 and 14, to look the ruins but.
Criminal Schedule, a Beirut-based nonprofit analysis and advocacy organisation, discovered that Israel dedicated greater than 855 ceasefire violations by way of past due January.
Ameneh Mehvar, a Heart East senior analyst for ACLED, an organisation that collects information on warfare, informed Al Jazeera that it had recorded “over 330 air strike and shelling incidents” because the ceasefire.
A withdrawal that wasn’t
Naqoura, which lies proper at the southern Lebanese border, had sustained critical harm all through the conflict however had now not been invaded by way of the presen the ceasefire started.
In mid-December, Israeli troops entered Naqoura and stories started to emerge that they have been destroying properties and constructions there and in alternative villages in south Lebanon.
The Israeli withdrawal used to be intended to be finished by way of January 26. However in spite of rejections from Lebanon’s govt, the Israelis introduced – with the backing of the US – that their presence could be prolonged till February 18.
On Monday, Israel introduced it will “leave small amounts of troops deployed temporarily in five strategic points” in Lebanon.
The Israelis did pull back from Naqoura in early January, permitting citizens to look what used to be left in their village and houses later the random violence that happened them.
‘They used bulldozers for revenge’
On a winding boulevard in the back of Naqoura’s municipality development, 75-year-old Ali Shaabi continues to be mourning his fruit timber and the planned harm that happened them.
He stepped nimbly over rubble to get to his farmland, explaining that he had now not restrained watering his timber till he needed to evacuate.
“I didn’t leave them,” he stated, a cigarette and his yellow lighter by no means escape his fingers.
Plump grapefruits hold from one tree however a mango tree lies at the field similar it. It were torn out of the field by way of Israeli squaddies all through the ceasefire, strategic function unknown.
Status at the entrance porch of the charred house he old to are living in along with his spouse, kids and grandchildren, he defined that it were prepared on fireplace, with the upstairs now unreachable since the stairs were destroyed.
Shaabi had stayed in the back of in the home when the remainder of his nation fled to Tyre all through the conflict. Civil defence employees after all evacuated him extreme September when Israeli assaults on Lebanon intensified, and he was at secured his nation.
His space used to be advantageous when he left it, he explains, and used to be broken handiest all through the ceasefire. Now the basement and higher flooring are charred, and all the construction must be supported by way of pylons.
“They got bulldozers,” he stated. “They came into Naqoura with bulldozers, for revenge.”
The nation had even discovered a few of their clothes shot to bits, probably hung up by way of Israeli squaddies and shot at.
Naqoura is a predominantly Shia the town, a demographic amongst which Hezbollah historically enjoys a splendid trade in of assistance. If truth be told, Hezbollah flags have been planted within the rubble of a few of Naqoura’s destroyed constructions.
Regardless, the devastate of houses and civilian infrastructure is against the law beneath global legislation, and plenty of Lebanese seen it as an indiscriminate punishment in opposition to Shia communities throughout Lebanon.
“Not everyone is Hezbollah,” Shaabi stated. “Shia are not always Hezbollah.”
‘I miss my village’
Getting information on whether or not your own home used to be nonetheless status used to be tough all through the conflict however some villagers, like Reem Taher, found out easy methods to pay for usual satellite tv for pc photographs in their neighbourhoods to look what used to be happening.
Ahead of the conflict, Taher ran a beautician industry however needed to escape to Tyre when the bombing started.
The photographs she used to be paying for confirmed her house used to be intact, together with on November 26, the date prior to the ceasefire.
However at 11am on November 27, she gained yet another document. Then surviving a 12 months of Israeli wind raids, her house used to be now in ruins.
“They blew up my house, levelled my land, and even enjoyed cutting down the trees,” she informed Al Jazeera in the house she is renting in Tyre’s Hosh neighbourhood, an segment that had additionally unhidden its justifiable share of devastate. The development around the highway were levelled.
“I omit having a espresso within the morning by way of the ocean. I omit our gatherings and evenings within the farmland. I omit the decision to devotion from my village, Ramadan nights … choosing clementines from the tree.
“I miss everything about my village – the sunset, the pine trees, and the sparkle of the sea from afar.”
‘This ceasefire is a lie’
On February 13, when Al Jazeera visited Naqoura, just about each house used to be diminished to piles of wreckage and infrastructure lay in ruins.
Electrical energy poles were pulled out of the field, the native faculty used to be pockmarked with bullet holes, and the carcasses of burned cars lay rejected.
“They destroyed the mosque, the cemetery, and the infrastructure – roads, water, electricity. Anything that provided means of livelihood, they destroyed,” Taher stated.
Some properties were commandeered by way of Israeli squaddies, who left them suffering from meals packaging and provides introduced in from Israel.
The partitions have been coated in Hebrew writing, most commonly with shift schedules. However on one fridge, a soldier had left a message: “We came to drive away the darkness.”
Sanad, Al Jazeera’s verification company, when put next satellite tv for pc photographs from December 3, 2024, and January 19, 2025.
The photographs from December 3 display many buildings, together with Awada’s house and the municipality development, with negligible sight harm.
The photographs from January 19 display destroyed buildings, between the two of them Awada’s house.
ACLED recorded 14 cases of the Israeli military sporting out managed explosions and bulldozing of houses in Naqoura between December 11, 2024 and January 6, 2025. In step with their information, every incident concerned multiple space.
Sitting on what remained of his porch, Shaabi chain-smoked, surrounded by way of his nation – kids and grandchildren.
For lots of in Naqoura, the word of a ceasefire introduced hope for returning house. They by no means concept that their properties could be broken or destroyed all through the ceasefire.
In between puffs, Shaabi stated, “This ceasefire is a lie.”