Israel is making large parts of southern Lebanon unlivable, a disaster for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who can no longer go home.

• 24 villages in southern Lebanon, including Christian ones, have been flattened by single mass detonations rather than targeted strikes.
• White phosphorus shelling since 2023 has burned forests and centuries-old olive groves and left the soil poisoned with heavy metals.
• Israel is now spraying glyphosate, a banned weedkiller and cancer-causing chemical, along the border at levels 20 to 50 times normal farm use — enough to sterilize the soil for years.
• Around 600,000 Lebanese are blocked from returning home, and the farming economy that 80% of the south depends on is being wiped out.
• Lebanon's science council puts environmental damage at $25 billion from 2023–2024 alone, with land near offshore oil fields Israel has mapped as its own.

Outlook: With US media largely silent and no consequences under international law, the destruction is likely to continue and the displacement to become permanent.