Report: IDF strikes in southern Lebanon have created 5-kilometer ‘dead zone’ along border

Israel Defense Forces strikes in southern Lebanon, responding to near-daily attacks by the Hezbollah terror group, have created a “dead zone” of around 5 kilometers (3 miles) along the border with Israel, the Financial Times reports, citing data gleaned from aerial photographs.

“Near-daily aerial bombardment, artillery shelling and the incendiary chemical white phosphorus have made much of the 5km north of the Blue Line uninhabitable,” the report claims.

The Financial Times analyzes data from commercial satellites with research from the CUNY Graduate Center and Oregon State University to detect changes to buildings.

According to the report, only “handfuls” of Lebanese civilians remain in the area, with most buildings empty and many destroyed.

The report quotes Mohammad Srour, the mayor of Ayta ash-Shab, as saying that the strikes amount to “systematic destruction.”

Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006 to bring an end to the war between Israel and Hezbollah terrorists, UN peacekeepers were deployed to monitor a ceasefire along the 120-kilometer (75-mile) demarcation line, or Blue Line, between Israel and Lebanon.

It also calls for Hezbollah to withdraw its forces behind the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the border with Israel– a demand the terror group has ignored.

The report quotes an unnamed Hezbollah terrorist as saying, “Asking us to withdraw from the south is like asking a fish not to swim in the sea.”