Israeli attacks on Lebanon during its latest war with Hezbollah damaged or destroyed more than 50,000 housing units in the country, a government estimate found on Wednesday.
“Within about 45 days (of the war), we had 17,756 destroyed housing units and 32,668 damaged housing units,” Chadi Abdallah, head of the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), told AFP.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed more than 2,400 people and displaced more than a million since Iran-backed Hezbollah drew the country into the Middle East war on March 2.
Despite an ongoing 10-day truce that started on Friday, Israeli forces have continued to demolish and blow up homes in southern Lebanese towns they currently occupy, according to Lebanese authorities, eyewitnesses, and photographs taken by AFP from the Israeli side.
The CNRS estimates that “428 housing units were destroyed and 50 were damaged” during the first three days of the ceasefire, Abdallah said.
Lebanon is set to ask for an extension of the truce during its next talks with Israel on Thursday, a Lebanese official told AFP.
Hezbollah and Israel had previously clashed for more than a year in 2023, escalating into two months of full-blown war in late 2024 until a November ceasefire sought to end the hostilities.
Israel continued to strike Lebanon despite the previous truce and kept troops positions at five border points.
“The aggression that extended between 2023 and 2025, which is in fact an aggression that did not stop, left behind enormous destruction at various levels,” Lebanese Environment Minister Tamara Zein said at the press conference.
She added that “more than 220,000 housing units were damaged and destroyed” during that period.
Zein added that Israel’s strikes did not spare residential neighbourhoods, civilian infrastructure and places of worship, and resulted in damage to large agricultural and forested areas.
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