In Southern Lebanon, a Gloss of Diplomacy Can't Hide the Reality of OccupationOccupied by Israeli forces and depopulated, Majdal Zoun overlooks the nearby village of Al-Mansouri, where the few remaining residents come under Israeli attack on a near daily basis.
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AL-MANSOURI, Lebanon—The road into Al-Mansouri winds through a shattered landscape. A barber shop stands without walls, its broken mirror still clinging to the remaining structure. The village cemetery is scarred by craters. The mosque is still standing, though parts of its façade were ripped away by Israeli airstrikes. Nevertheless, over the past month, signs of life have returned to Al-Mansouri, a village in the Sour (Tyre) district near the coastline in southern Lebanon. On Thursday, a handful of men sat on plastic chairs outside their homes, sipping small cups of coffee. Others swept dust from damaged shops. Men on scooters wove between the ruins. The same cannot be said for the neighboring village of Majdal Zoun which lies perched on a hill overlooking Al-Mansouri just a few hundred meters away. The two villages are closely intertwined and even share areas of territory that overlap. Last month, Israeli ground troops invaded and occupied Majdal Zoun, where they have been systematically destroying homes and civilian infrastructure. The remaining residents of Al-Mansouri now live in full view of the occupying Israeli forces and under constant threat. Al-Mansouri is attacked on a near daily basis from its sister village with Israeli airstrikes and stun grenades dropped from drones. Last month, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over Al-Mansouri, declaring the area a “threatened zone,” telling residents to “stay away” and warning that anyone who approached Israeli forces would “put themselves in danger.” Despite the threats, around 100 people have chosen to remain in the village, according to Yousef Shehemy, the mayor of neighboring Majdal Zoun, who has been displaced from his home by the occupying Israeli forces. “People here believe their souls belong to this land,” Shehemy told Drop Site as he drove past a row of destroyed houses in Al-Mansouri. Shehemy was in the village when the leaflets fell from the sky. “They want to control people’s lives from above with leaflets, drones, sound grenades—all of it to frighten civilians.”
Like dozens of villages and towns in southern Lebanon, Al-Mansouri and Majdal Zoun are either occupied by Israeli forces and being systematically destroyed, or being attacked from the air on a routine basis despite a U.S.-brokered framework agreement signed in Washington by the governments of Lebanon and Israel on June 26. The reality on the ground in Lebanon stands in stark contrast to what is being billed as an ongoing diplomatic effort to bring about a lasting peace deal. On Tuesday, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun met with U.S. President Donald Trump, wrapping up a four-day visit to Washington. It marked the first meeting between leaders of the two countries for almost 20 years. “I would like to thank President Trump, really, and his team for the historic visit and for the historic achievement that we did together by signing the framework with the ultimate objective of ending the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel forever,” Aoun said in the White House. The signed framework agreement requires the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm Hezbollah before Israel withdraws from parts of Lebanese territory it occupies. Hezbollah has rejected the deal, which has been criticized for extracting few guarantees from Israel and placing nearly all obligations on the Lebanese government. Meanwhile, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly vowed to keep occupying forces long term in a “security zone” in southern Lebanon. In Al-Mansouri, the threat of Israeli troops invading the village is ever present. On Friday, videos circulating on social media appeared to show an Israeli military vehicle advancing toward the Lebanese Army checkpoint at the entrance to the village before withdrawing. “Israel is unpredictable,” Shehemy said. “You never know what comes next.” Shehemy has served as mayor of Majdal Zoun for the past year. He fled the hilltop village with most of its residents when the war between Israel and Hezbollah escalated again on March 2. Before the latest phase of the war, around 1,500 people lived in Majdal Zoun. Today, the village stands empty and largely in ruins. According to Shehemy, 90 percent of Majdal Zoun has been destroyed by the Israeli military. Across Lebanon, over 1.2 million people were forced from their homes by the Israeli assault, with more than 700,000 people in Lebanon still displaced despite a so-called “ceasefire,” according to the United Nations. “Everything has been put on standby. The war has prevented us from dreaming,” Shehemy said. For many families from Majdal Zoun, displacement has brought another painful uncertainty: the fate of missing relatives. Residents call Shehemy daily, inquiring about loved ones who disappeared after the village came under Israeli control in June. Some were civilians. Others fought alongside Hezbollah. “They need to know the fate of their children,” Shehemy said. “If it turns out they are dead, they would accept it. But without answers, these families will never find peace.” Those answers remained out of reach. With Israeli forces still controlling Majdal Zoun, many residents see little chance of returning home anytime soon. On Monday, the State Department announced that operations in three Lebanese villages deemed part of the so-called “pilot zones” had begun. The zones are nominally designed to allow the Lebanese army to replace Israeli troops in occupied areas. Two of the villages, Froun and Srifa, were not under Israeli military control in the first place. On Tuesday, the Lebanese army began deploying to the third village, Zawtar al-Gharbieh, after Israel withdrew. However, Israeli forces opened fire near Lebanese troops as they were deploying, according to a statement from the Lebanese Army which warned the incident would “hinder the implementation of deployment steps” in the pilot zones. To many residents of southern Lebanon, the agreement is little more than words on paper. “As long as they are still occupying our land, I don’t see any benefit in the framework agreement,” Shehemy said from a coffee shop in Sour (Tyre) as an Israeli surveillance drone buzzed overhead. “They should make Israel withdraw from the occupied areas, not from zones that aren’t even occupied.” He argued that the U.S. brokered negotiations have largely ignored the concerns of civilians who remain displaced. “For now, the negotiations are only one-sided, with Lebanon being used as a puppet by Israel.” Amnesty International has also criticized the framework agreement for appearing to “acquiesce to the prolonged and indefinite forced displacement of tens of thousands of residents of vast swathes of southern Lebanon occupied by Israeli forces.” The deal violates international law, Amnesty said, as it “effectively consents to the prolonged and indefinite displacement of tens of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon by making their return, as well as reconstruction, contingent on conditions subject to ‘confirmation.’” Many residents in the south remain caught between distrust in the state and continued support for Hezbollah as a source of protection. Ali Ghandour, from Nabatieh in south Lebanon, spent months displaced in Saida after fleeing his home early in the war. At one point, he lived out of his car before eventually returning to his hometown. “What would you do if someone occupied your country and your president did nothing? You would fight back,” he told Drop Site. Ghandour said he feels abandoned by the Lebanese state, accusing the government of prioritizing U.S. and Israeli interests over its own citizens. “Only God protects us. And Hezbollah. As long as we have Hezbollah, we will be fine. When it comes to our country, we will never give up,” he said.
Standing at Al Najda Al Shaabiya Hospital located on a hilltop overlooking Nabatieh, Israeli airstrikes echoed across the area on Thursday. Explosions shook surrounding villages, and smoke rose above the area of Zawtar on the horizon. Over the past several weeks, the Israeli military has routinely violated the “ceasefire,” conducting regular airstrikes, shelling, house demolitions, and other military operations. Residents and paramedics in Nabatieh said these actions are an almost daily reality in their district. At the hospital, Fadel Sheet, a freelance journalist reporting for the Nabatieh Ambulance Association, pointed toward a rising cloud of smoke from an Israeli airstrike on Nabatieh Al Fawqa. “We are used to it. What can we do?” Sheet said. Just weeks earlier, another strike in the same village killed four people. The victims included a school principal, her mother, and two domestic workers who had gone to inspect their house. The Israeli military acknowledged the attack, describing the four as approaching a “security zone” and claiming the strike was carried out to “eliminate the threat” of the four civilians to its forces. Since March 2, more than 4,300 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, including over 250 children. Over 12,200 have been injured. Mahmoud Maoussa, a paramedic at the hospital, took a drag from his cigarette and pointed toward the smoke rising in the distance. “They are supposed to withdraw, but does it look like they are?”
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