Israeli forces continued to carry out heavy airstrikes against southern Lebanon today, with locals reporting airstrikes, drone strikes, and artillery shelling across the region, with attacks reported as far north as Nabatieh al-Fawqa, a town that has repeatedly come under fire of late. Mayfadoun was also under particularly severe targeting, with Israeli drones firing into the […]

“Every single village, we’re talking about 23,000 homes, is in ruins,” Katz boasted before a cheering studio audience, adding “there are no residents left, 200,000 people have been displaced,” using ‘Gaza model’

A week before the Israeli elections, their assorted offensive wars are becoming a particularly important issue, and high ranking figures are attaching themselves to various hawkish narratives, particularly as related to the ongoing invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. Defense Minister Israel Katz has been at the fore in this regard. Last week he threatened […]

Judicial official says Lebanese security agencies working to locate terror group members and bring them into custody, after Hezbollah admitted explosives belonged to it

Last week, the New York Times released the results of its investigation into the ongoing Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon and found that some 48 towns and villages had been destroyed by IDF forces. Defense Minister Israel Katz, in a weekend appearance on Israel’s Channel 14, bragged that the number is even higher. […]

Starting in late September, the annual olive harvest is an economically important part of life for residents of many southern Lebanese towns and villages in the Autumn. This year, however, they’re finding themselves under serious limitations by the new Israeli military occupation. Though the IDF made much of the idea that they’re allowing workers to […]

‘We’ve lost a world’: Former residents remember peaceful childhoods and civil-war trauma; only some 20 Jews are believed to remain from a once-vibrant community

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Sputnik – 17.10.2026

BEIRUT – The number of books destroyed by Israeli bombings of libraries, as well as religious and cultural institutions since October 2023, has exceeded 3 million copies, founder and coordinator of the National Network for the Protection of Libraries, Archives, and Cultural Heritage in Lebanon Hadi Bekdash told Sputnik on Saturday.

“There are reports of the burning of more than 700,000 books belonging to Lebanese and Arab publishers, as well as more than 3 million books from homes, libraries, religious centers, family collections, researchers’ libraries, and universities, publishers, cultural institutions, and private collections since 2023,” Bekdash said.

In 2026, practically confirmed information appeared about the destruction of dozens of public and hundreds of private libraries during the conflict with Israel, he added.

These data do not reflect the full scale of losses, since Lebanon still does not have a unified national database of destroyed libraries, archives, and book collections, the coordinator said.

Bekdash added that it will be possible to finally assess the damage only after conducting a nationwide inventory of lost and damaged collections.

A national campaign, A Million Books for Lebanon, is currently underway in the country, aimed at restoring destroyed and damaged libraries.

Doha also says it will help rehabilitate struggling electricity sector; Trump plan to restart direct US flights with Beirut faces problems

Gur Kehati's mother says she told IDF chief 'the country has given up on us' before they moved to Crete; family furious at IDF's response to incident, lack of consequences for those involved

The Israeli military typically responds to accusations of harm by stating an incident is being "investigated". A BBC investigation belies this claim.

Earlier this week, Lebanese officials seized a truckload of explosives in the northeastern Hermel region, leading to accusations from some of the officials of an impending Hezbollah assassination campaign involving bombs. On Thursday, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah confirmed that the explosives belonged to the group, but insisted that there was no assassination program, and that […]

Like most nights, Wednesday night saw Israeli forces carry out artillery strikes and airstrikes across southern Lebanon, with reports of strikes hitting multiple municipalities across the Tyre, Nabatieh, and Bint Jbeil Districts. Those strikes included some casualties in the town of Haddatha, in Bint Jbeil, where an Israel airstrike wounded two civilians, one of them […]

Lawmaker for terror group says bomb-making material was intended for use against Israeli forces, asks for material seized by authorities to be returned

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Anticipating another round of war with Hezbollah despite the fact that the current Israeli invasion of Lebanon hasn’t even ended, Defense Minister Israel Katz laid out a litany of threats against Lebanon that would happen if Hezbollah “joins Iran” in any attack on Israel. Katz declared that the territory around Nabatieh and the Litani River […]

Netanyahu says he's against Israeli or US strike on Islamic Republic, hopes there won't be an attack on Israel to disrupt elections; Katz warns Hezbollah not to launch conflict

Defense Minister Israel Katz has bragged that Israel was destroying “not one house at a time,” but “the entirety of those villages.”