“
Durante un año de conflicto latente, Lubnan Baalbaki observó cómo su aldea ancestral era objeto de numerosos bombardeos, atrapada en los enfrentamientos entre Israel y el grupo militante libanés Hizbollah.
Baalbaki, director de la orquesta filarmónica de Líbano e hijo de un destacado artista libanés, había esperado que el museo de su familia, un raro centro cultural en las colinas del sur del Líbano, fuera respetado.
La casa familiar de los Baalbaki en Odaisseh se había convertido en un centro cultural para las artes © Lubnan BaalbakiEl padre de Lubnan Baalbaki, Abdel-Hamid Baalbaki, diseñó la casa él mismo en bocetos © Lubnan Baalbaki
Pero la semana pasada, su esperanza se desvaneció al ver un video que mostraba una demolición controlada por parte del ejército israelí en Odaisseh.
Observando desde la relativa seguridad de Beirut, vio cómo la casa que su padre había construido con esmero durante 25 años y donde están enterrados ambos padres había sido reducida a escombros.
“Fue devastador para todos nosotros”, dijo Baalbaki, refiriéndose al impacto en sus seis hermanos, entre ellos su hermana Soumaya, cantante, y su hermano Oussama, un conocido artista. “Tengo 43 años, así que siento que he perdido 43 años de mi vida con esta destrucción.”
Imágenes satelitales analizadas por el Financial Times muestran que el edificio fue destruido por Israel entre el 21 y el 23 de octubre. Las imágenes de video capturaron el colapso de los edificios en medio de una serie de explosiones simultáneas.
Odaisseh es una de al menos 30 antiguas ciudades y aldeas en la frontera que Israel ha dañado desde principios de octubre, muchas de ellas de forma extensa, según el análisis del FT de imágenes satelitales y video. Al menos 12 han tenido filas de edificios demolidas en detenciones controladas por las FDI.
La serie de demoliciones de pueblos sugiere que Israel está despejando una franja de aproximadamente 3 km a lo largo de la frontera informal entre los dos países, una zona que presenta las características de una zona desmilitarizada.
Imágenes compartidas en las redes sociales en el último mes muestran varias detonaciones controladas, muchas de ellas involucrando múltiples edificios, que han arrasado vastas extensiones de barrios residenciales de una sola vez.
Los momentos capturados en video incluyen una serie de estructuras siendo detonadas en Aitaroun y la destrucción de la mezquita en el pueblo de Yaroun.
Si bien el área de la frontera alberga aldeas dispersas con poblaciones mayoritariamente cristianas, musulmanas suníes y drusas, las que Israel ha atacado han sido principalmente musulmanas chiítas, comunidades donde Hizbollah ejerce control y de las que obtiene apoyo.
En Mhaibib, una colección de edificaciones en lo alto de la colina fue volada; en Dheyra, una detonación remota destruyó al menos una de las tres mezquitas del pueblo y varios edificios circundantes. En Odaisseh, hubo cinco explosiones simultáneas, cada una con múltiples grupos de explosiones.
El ministro de Defensa de Israel, Yoav Gallant, dijo al FT que la franja de 3 km, lo que llamó “la primera franja”, estaba “avanzando en términos de ser limpiada de la infraestructura de ataque de Hizbollah”. Añadió que la ofensiva terrestre de sus tropas en Líbano continuará “el tiempo que sea necesario”.
Earlier this year, the FT documented how Israeli air strikes had already rendered those areas largely uninhabitable.
But in September, Israel’s objectives shifted, as it ramped up its campaign to debilitate Hizbollah, killing the group’s senior leadership and launching thousands of air strikes across the country as well as a ground invasion in southern Lebanon.
Israel now wants southern Lebanon to be free of Hizbollah, warning it would use force if necessary to uphold any ceasefire. The militant group began launching projectiles towards Israel “in solidarity” with Gaza the day after Hamas’s deadly assault last year on October 7, displacing 60,000 Israelis.
Over a year of near-daily barrages, Hizbollah rockets have destroyed homes and sparked fires that have spread across wide swaths of Israel’s northern regions.
Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.
The destruction caused in Lebanon during October stretches right along the border.
More than 12 per cent of buildings on the Lebanese side have been damaged or destroyed in the past four weeks, according to FT analysis of satellite images and radar data provided by Corey Scher, a researcher at CUNY graduate centre, and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.
Southern villages have been on the frontline throughout the past year of cross-border fire between Israel and Hizbollah. This intensified after October 1 this year, when invading Israeli troops began ground operations.
Israel’s military did not respond to a request for comment, but says it only targets Hizbollah militants and infrastructure, accusing the group of embedding itself in civilian areas.
One Israeli military official on the northern front told the FT that its recent operations in “the first line of Shia villages across the border [were] against very highly selected assets of Hizbollah”.
The official said Israel had the “very clear objective” of targeting elite Hizbollah forces to remove “the threat of any ground attack” in the future.
The group’s military infrastructure, the official added, was mostly within civilian populations in villages, both above and below ground, including what the IDF says are tunnel networks. “In that essence, we are dealing with what we call a militarised village,” the official said.
Over the past month, many of these villages have suffered extensive damage as a result of Israel’s more aggressive strategy.
Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.
While Israeli officials repeat that their war is with Hizbollah and not with the Lebanese people, experts questioned Israel’s systematic attempt to clear the area.
Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg, an expert on international law at the London School of Economics, disputed Israel’s notion that these villages are valid military targets, saying that the existence of Hizbollah infrastructure in a civilian area is not enough to justify its controlled demolition — even if the assets could be used against Israel in the future.
“It cannot be considered proportionate,” said Gurmendi Dunkelberg. “Many other countries, including Israel’s allies, have encountered counter-insurgency operations, like the US in Iraq and Afghanistan — and they did not blow up entire towns. What makes this different?”
To comply with the principle of proportionality in international law, Gurmendi Dunkelberg said that the military advantage Israel would need to get from demolishing entire villages “should be enormous”.
Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.
In Lebanon, Israel’s actions are being regarded cynically. More than 1mn people, or one in five, have been displaced by fighting and by Israeli evacuation orders.
“There are two reasons Israel is using this detonations strategy,” said retired Lebanese armed forces general Akram Kamal Srawi. The first is to clear lines of sight for potential incursions deeper into Lebanon in an area where Hizbollah maintains the upper hand and has caused significant losses for Israel.
“The second is that Israel has adopted a scorched earth strategy in order to wage psychological warfare on Hizbollah’s base people by televising these detonations and weaken support for the group — which will never work,” he added.
While detonation was the fastest way to destroy the tunnels, Srawi said there were other means, such as pouring concrete. “If you’re trying to demolish them that quickly, it’s because your troops are having a hard time fighting in the south,” he added.
In Dheyra, a picturesque farming village less than 1km from the border, recent controlled demolitions levelled much of the town centre, including at least one of its three mosques.
“What an event,” an Israeli soldier said in a video as the mosque crumples, before members of the group break into religious song.
From Beirut, Baalbaki has already started thinking about returning to Odaisseh and rebuilding.
His father, the late artist Abdel-Hamid Baalbaki who was known for his figurative paintings, had made it his life’s work to transform the Odaisseh house into a cultural centre and exhibition space, using his art teacher’s salary to pay for construction while bringing up his seven children. It was full of his collection of fine art and pottery as well as 2,000 books and manuscripts.
Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.
Now the family fears the separate building where their parents are buried has also been destroyed.
“It was a very emotional project for him and for all of us because we grew up . . . with this dream,” said Baalbaki, whose first name Lubnan is Arabic for Lebanon. “I think now more than ever, we believe in the importance of rebuilding this museum.”
Información adicional de Jana Tauschinski
“