Riyasa, a young southern Lebanese girl living in Beit Leif — a small town near the border with Israel — says her life has completely changed since the last war between both sides. Her usual strolls near the forest have become more of a risk than a leisure activity, not because of wild animals, but because of Israeli war drones constantly buzzing over her head and over the heads of residents of the South in general. Israeli violations have now become the norm.

The Israeli violations of the ceasefire with Lebanon — which ended a 66-day full-scale war following nearly a year of mutual bombardments that began on October 8, 2023 — have become “a norm” for the Arab state. What changed in recent months is the gradual escalation Israel has carried out against Hezbollah personnel, civilians, and infrastructure, and even public workers. These violations left 140 civilians dead and 398 injured, with 2,950 violations recorded according to Information International, an independent regional research firm based in Beirut.

Israeli violations never stop

Following the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, a UN-brokered ceasefire under Resolution 1701 was meant to prevent further hostilities and maintain stability along the Lebanese-Israeli border. But in practice, the agreement has been repeatedly violated — primarily by Israel — through near-daily overflights, artillery fire, and cross-border attacks. Since October 2023, these violations have intensified in parallel with the Gaza war, as Israel justifies its strikes as “targeting Hezbollah positions.” Yet many of these attacks have hit civilian areas, farmland, and small villages across South Lebanon, displacing thousands of residents and destroying infrastructure. While the Lebanese Army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have documented hundreds of breaches, the international response remains muted, leaving border communities to bear the brunt of an undeclared war that is steadily eroding what remains of the ceasefire.

Riyasa told the Canary:

We feel death is near since the drones are directly over our village. We barely go out, and if we go hunting, we return early because Israel might think we’re building something against it and could target us. If the drone is close, I don’t go out, I don’t go to the gym, I tell my siblings to come back home — our friends as well — because Israel targets whoever it wants with no accountability. The drone’s sound has become a synonym for death. Every time it’s near and going faster, we sense death is closer. We got used to the sound; when it speeds up, it means it’s targeting someone — whether it’s you or someone near you.

From her house, she can hear the constant Israeli bombardment and gunfire toward Aita al-Shaab, a border town that overlooks several Israeli outposts, where the IDF casually enters the empty town and blows up what remains of civilian structures about 1.5 km inside Lebanese territory. She also hears the distant airstrikes on other towns in southern Lebanon, where Israel claims it is targeting “Hezbollah activity and infrastructure” — yet without providing evidence.

Largest post-war attack

One such attack targeted excavator dealerships in Msayleh (60 km from the Israeli border) in the largest post-war attack. The strikes completed destroyed 6 excavator dealerships at 4 am on October 11, wiping out over 300 machines. The IDF claimed Hezbollah was using the equipment to “rebuild the areas it was operating in,” but Lebanese MP Kassem Hashem said that day:

This is a massacre of people’s livelihoods. Israel is only aiming to make southern Lebanon an uninhabitable area.

So why does Israel continue to violate the ceasefire, conducting airstrikes and destroying civilian structures?

Dr. Leila Nicola, a political analyst, told the Canary that there are:

many intersecting goals behind Israel’s daily attacks on the South — such as putting pressure on Hezbollah and the Lebanese government through escalation, and forcing Beirut into direct peace negotiations with Israel, which would amount to official recognition of the state. In addition, Israel seeks a security arrangement that gives it the upper hand in southern Lebanon while preventing Hezbollah from regaining strength — a goal it could not achieve through its previous wars or during its occupation of Lebanon (1982–2000).

Nicola added:

At this point, no one knows if things will escalate into a full-scale war in the coming months. For now, we remain in a status quo — an escalation short of full war. Hezbollah will not give Israel a pretext to expand its aggression, and Israel won’t launch a ground invasion since it has tried that before with limited success. Instead, it will continue this low-cost war that hurts Hezbollah and Lebanon economically, socially, and militarily — until it gets an American green light for a full-scale war. For now, the U.S. administration seems content with the pressure Israel’s campaign, alongside its economic and political pressure, is exerting on Lebanon.

Israeli violations — ‘We feel life has stopped’

In the town of Kfarshouba, on the eastern side of the border, Dima shares her frustration with the Canary:

We can’t reach our farms, especially the olive fields — people couldn’t harvest their crops because of the Israeli attacks. Everything changed since the ceasefire,” she adds, half-jokingly, “Death is near? We feel life has stopped. Of course, we fear war might break out again — drones are always above us, and gunfire from Israeli outposts has become more frequent.

Meanwhile in central South Lebanon, Zeinab, a nurse working in Bint Jbeil — known as the capital of resistance and liberation — expresses her disappointment at the lack of media and international attention:

It’s like there has to be a huge incident for anyone to notice us. Very few media outlets cover what’s happening here, and most treat it as if it’s a daily norm. Our lives have changed — there’s no sense of security in town anymore. No one trusts the situation, or Israel.

UNIFIL spokesperson Dany Ghafari told the Canary:

Israel still takes control of several points on the Lebanese side of the border, which is a violation of the 1701 agreement. We hand reports to the security council concerning this.

Shockingly, Ghafari said that:

We also have observed since 27th of November more than 7000 aerial violations, and more than 1400 on-ground violations by the Israeli military.

For those who remain in the South, every explosion is a reminder that the ceasefire exists only on paper — and that Lebanon’s borderlands are once again paying the price for Israeli violations the world refuses to see.

Featured image via author

By Mohamad Kleit

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