Lebanon / Middle East · Public record
Israeli strikes on construction equipment and water systems block South Lebanon recovery
Israeli forces have destroyed construction equipment, water infrastructure, and entire villages in South Lebanon, according to Human Rights Watch, UN peacekeepers, and aid workers. The attacks have continued after multiple ceasefires, preventing approximately 330,000 displaced people from returning home and leaving families to clear rubble by hand.
What Israeli forces destroyed
Human Rights Watch examined four Israeli attacks on heavy-machinery showrooms and maintenance facilities as well as a factory that produced cement and asphalt between August and October 2025, after the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The strikes destroyed more than 360 pieces of construction equipment, according to the organisation, which classified the attacks as apparent war crimes.
Israeli defense minister Israel Katz stated that 23,000 homes and more than 60 villages have been destroyed as of October. A New York Times analysis found that Israeli forces have largely leveled 48 of the roughly 60 villages and towns in the area they occupy, most of them after the renewed ceasefire in April.
Doctors Without Borders stated in September that attacks on already weakened water systems continued despite the April ceasefire. Charlene Silvin, a project coordinator for the organisation, led a team that visited about 20 towns in the Bint Jbeil area and said there was not one village on the road that was not hit in some capacity. The group documented damage to wells, pumps, generators, filtration units, and pipelines across southern Lebanon.
Military justification and evidence
The Israeli military said on Telegram that the equipment and materials supported, or were intended to support, Hezbollah's reconstruction of its infrastructure. Human Rights Watch said it found no evidence of military targets at or around the sites it examined.
Though the organisation could not establish the intended use of every attacked machine or store of materials, it did not find any evidence that these supplies were intended for military use. Human Rights Watch did verify civilian uses for some equipment.
The Israeli military told the New York Times it had received no directive to carry out widespread damage to structures or to demolish villages.
Who cannot return and why
Approximately 330,000 people remain internally displaced in Lebanon, according to UN estimates as of 29 September. During UN consultations, local officials in Jabal Amel reported that around 6,500 displaced families could not return to a dozen villages inside the zone.
These villages were inside the Israeli-declared Yellow Line, which marks a military zone in southern Lebanon, and restrictions in this area have obstructed efforts to restore essential services. Some local water authorities and civil servants told Silvin that Israeli forces had intimidated them when they tried to reach damaged sites near the Yellow Line.
Owners of construction equipment feared that bringing out their machines would invite another attack, according to Ramzi Kaiss, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Lebanon. Locals began clearing debris by hand after Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon throughout 2025. The threat of another attack shapes what gets repaired, with aid workers often opting for temporary fixes rather than lasting infrastructure.
Water infrastructure damage
In the Bint Jbeil region, the boreholes that supply villages with water lie in a valley held by Israeli troops. Storage tanks could no longer hold water, and pump and filtration units were offline. Nearly every solar panel that was supposed to power these systems had been damaged, according to Silvin's team.
In the municipality of Yater, Doctors Without Borders installed plastic tanks because the main water tank was deemed irreparable. In Froun, the organisation repaired the filtration unit and connected it directly to the water source, bypassing the damaged tank.
Some residents are relying on trucked-in water, like the 90 families who returned to Zawtar Al-Gharbiyeh, which once had 500 households. Silvin said this is not a long-term solution but an expensive and limited substitute. An October UN report described municipalities struggling to pay staff, fuel pumps, and maintain vehicles.
Monitoring and documentation
UNIFIL, which monitors and reports violations in southern Lebanon, is approaching the end of its mandate on 31 December 2026. In an October statement, the organisation said discussions were continuing over the UN's role after this deadline passes.
Kandice Ardiel, a UNIFIL spokesperson, described the peacekeepers as the impartial record keepers of what is happening on the ground. Their departure raises questions about how that work will continue.
Many residents did return after the 2024 fighting and they did rebuild, according to Ardiel. But afterward, the organisation has seen things destroyed again. Ardiel, who has lived on a UNIFIL base since March, has watched olive trees hundreds or even thousands of years old be destroyed.
What to watch
- Whether UNIFIL's mandate is extended or replaced after 31 December 2026, affecting documentation of violations in southern Lebanon
- Whether Israeli forces allow access to the Yellow Line zone for infrastructure repairs, particularly to water sources in valleys
- Whether attacks on construction equipment and water systems continue after the next ceasefire negotiation
- Whether the approximately 330,000 internally displaced people can return to their villages in coming months
What we don't know yet
- The intended use of every piece of construction equipment destroyed in the August to October 2025 strikes
- Whether Israel Defense Forces received any directive regarding the destruction documented by the New York Times
- How monitoring and documentation of violations will continue after UNIFIL's mandate ends on 31 December 2026