On 16 October 2024, Israeli army soldiers posted a video showing them cheering while blowing up an entire village. Hours later, the Israeli army published a video via its Telegram account documenting the same detonation from the air, without naming the village. However, the village’s inhabitants immediately recognized it as Mhaibib. Mhaibib is the smallest of Jabal Amil’s villages and is named after the famous Shrine of Prophet Benjamin (who is known in Southern Lebanon as “Mhaibib”). The shrine has, over the centuries, become a religious and archeological landmark.   The shrine, which is located on a rock atop a hill, is said to date back to the era of the sons of Prophet Jacob. Historical accounts passed down through the generations say that the shrine is for Benjamin, the brother of Joseph and youngest son of Jacob. The shrine thereby occupies a special place among Jews, Christians, and Muslims.   Hence, in addition to its moral significance as the birthplace of its inhabitants, who number more than 1,000 according to official figures, Mhaibib also has historical, cultural, and religious significance. It was the first village that Israel totally destroyed during the current aggression as part of a strategy that is clearly apparent in Gaza and now Southern Lebanon. With journalists unable to access the village because of the ongoing battles and Israel’s systematic targeting of them, the extent of the destruction was not immediately clear.   Satellite imagery from 5 October 2024 shows that only five homes in the village were targeted between 8 October 2023 and that date. Current images show that 92 buildings were destroyed and six damaged when the village was blown up on October 16.  

    On October 19, after the news had spread globally, the Israeli army presented its narrative of these detonations. It published multimedia content consisting of 156 words and five videos totaling 149 seconds. The village’s name remained absent from this narrative. The shocking news of the destruction of an entire village in one detonation was circulated widely and covered by several international papers. On October 24, following this uproar, the Israeli army further developed its narrative in a press briefing delivered by its spokesperson. He named the village and presented a graphic of a tunnel allegedly underneath it without any footage to support these claims. He then presented another graphic of a separate tunnel that he said was also in Mhaibib, along with footage that he said was filmed inside a “tunnel” but did not document the location of its entrances such that its existence could be verified. Hence, this tunnel remains nothing but an Israeli claim. This investigation seeks to present a holistic account of the destruction of Mhaibib. The first section presents the details of the event, referring to open sources, satellite imagery, and the visual content from the Israeli army, and then checks the Israeli narrative, revealing systematic disinformation. The second section documents the human and civilizational value of what was destroyed via testimonies from the villagers and available historical sources.    

Massive Detonations in a Nameless Village

On the afternoon of October 16, a 20-second video began to circulate showing Israeli soldiers from behind, situated opposite a hilltop village, awaiting an explosion that occurs four seconds in. The detonations begin from the east and move rapidly across the hill, house by house. Thick smoke rises and covers the entire village. A short time later, the Israeli army published a video, filmed from the air, of what it said were its forces launching attacks on dozens of targets in the Nabatieh region.  

  In the media content presented on October 19, the Israeli army added more footage – this time official – of the detonation of Mhaibib from the ground. It also added footage of another explosion, filmed from both the air and the ground, as part of its narrative of the detonation.   An analysis of the footage by NAWA Media Lab confirmed that it does, in fact, contain two separate detonations. It was verified that the first detonation targeted the village’s historic hilltop neighborhoods. The location of the second explosion was determined to be on a plain between Mhaibib and Meiss El Jabal, beyond the dense residential neighborhoods inside the village.  

The Video of the Detonation of Mhaibib

In the statement published alongside videos of the village’s detonation on October 19, the Israeli army said that it used 100 tons of explosives. It said that, “Fighters of Brigade Combat Team Hazaken (8) and the Yalam unit under the command of the 91st Division… destroyed four underground Hezbollah infrastructures”. It repeated this narrative in subsequent statements.   The two videos filmed from the ground contributed to the efforts to verify the Israeli claim. In the unofficial leaked video filmed by the soldiers, the path of the explosion is clearly visible. It shows that the detonations in the heart of the village resting atop the tall hill were above ground.  

  The spark clearly appears to travel from east to west. This confirms that the explosives were connected via wires. The same means of detonation is evident in a video of the detonation of a home located outside the hamlet and, in terms of land division, in Meiss El Jabal, which we shall address later. The location where the soldiers were standing while they filmed was also identified as an area on the outskirts of Meiss El Jabal and Mhaibib.   NAWA Media Lab’s analysis of the same footage confirmed these conclusions. It was ascertained that the explosion documented in the aerial footage matches the shape of the explosion resulting from the dynamite detonated in the soldiers’ video. The location from which the video was filmed was determined to be a plot of land near the village.  

  When the Israeli army further developed its narrative in a press briefing on October 24, its spokesperson said that the target destroyed was an “underground command center of the Radwan Force”. NAWA Media Lab’s analysis of satellite imagery indicates that the detonations caused no crater. This confirms once again that the detonation occurred above ground. According to NAWA Media Lab: “Based on the graphics that the Israeli army published, if such a command center existed then it would have caused a large crater after the detonation. No trace of such a crater was found during investigation and examination of high-resolution satellite imagery”.   These intersecting conclusions refute the Israeli narrative about the destruction of a tunnel network under the village. They conclusively show that what actually happened was the destruction of a village via above-ground detonations after its homes were rigged with explosives.   The Israeli account only named the village as Mhaibib two weeks after its destruction, once Western media outlets had covered the story and directed questions at American officials about the staggering bombing.  

The Alternative Videos

During the belated press briefing on October 24, the Israeli army’s spokesperson opted not to use any footage from the videos related to Mhaibib the village. Instead, he relied on trivial graphics that cannot be considered evidence of his claims. The videos that he neglected to include are the same ones that were checked and analyzed above.   The spokesperson resorted to presenting a single video of explosions that were unconnected to the detonation of the hill of Mhaibib and occurred in the plain between Mhaibib and Meiss El Jabal. NAWA Media Lab’s analysis of satellite imagery identified that this detonation occurred at the intersection where Mhaibib meets Meiss El Jabal, 439 meters away from the location of the residential neighborhoods in the village of Mhaibib detonated on October 16.   The alternative videos also include footage that the Israeli media published of alleged clashes in a house in Mhaibib. The location where this footage was filmed was identified as the plain outside the village, far from the detonations that destroyed Mhaibib. This video, too, was intended to justify the village’s destruction, yet it was filmed in a flat area outside the village.   Hence, checking these alternative videos exposes lying and manipulation in the Israeli narrative in an attempt to surround the complete destruction of the village of Mhaibib with flimsy justifications and unsupported arguments. Our investigation concludes that the destruction of Mhaibib is a clear-cut crime, one that amounts to a probable war crime – as the Legal Agenda previously described it – because it targeted homes, civilian objects, historical monuments, and houses of worship. Attacking such objects is prohibited as long as they do not constitute legitimate military objectives. Even if such an attack does have a legitimate military objective, the principle of proportionality – which prohibits attacks inflicting civilian damage that is excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated – must be respected.   One legal expert deemed that the fact that the village was under Israeli military control when it was rigged with explosives, presumably empty, and remotely detonated means that the civilian infrastructure on the surface was not being used for military purposes at the time of destruction and the attack was therefore illegitimate. Another deemed that wiping a historic and religiously significant town off the map – in a manner that conveniently helps clear the border – on the pretext of the existence of tunnels is disproportionate.  

The Owner of a Home That Was Detonated: “They Robbed and Destroyed My Home Without Providing Any Reason”

The last video that the Israeli army presented as part of its account of Mhaibib’s destruction was the aforementioned video clearly showing its personnel rigging, with explosives, a civilian home situated outside the village and, in terms of land division, in Meiss El Jabal. Nevertheless, the Israeli army captioned the video in Hebrew “Engineering work to destroy underground infrastructure”.   The video shows one soldier of the engineering unit in Israel’s 91st Division laying detonation wires inside the home, where sunlight is clearly visible. It shows other soldiers laying detonation wires around the home and on its external walls. The video ends with a shot of a soldier tying the wire above one of the home’s doors.   It is clearly apparent that, contrary to the Israeli claim, what occurred was a detonation of a home above ground. The footage does not show any military installations, weapons, or ammunition. Likewise, the Israeli army did not present in this video any images of entrances that could lead underground. This video constitutes clear documentation of the destruction of a civilian home.   The Legal Agenda reached the owner of the home, who said that it was a civilian house that he built recently in the old-fashioned style using stone. He denied the presence of any military infrastructure: “It’s a home in which I put the most valuable of antiquities, and it cost me my life’s savings. I wanted it to be a sanctuary in my home village”.   Members of the owner’s family told the Legal Agenda that they accuse the occupation’s soldiers of plundering the home. The footage shows that the home was vandalized before it was blown up.

A Small, Historic Village

Satellite imagery reveals that the detonation of the village of Mhaibib completely destroyed all the homes, houses of worship, and humble stores there. An estimated 92 buildings were all razed to the ground. The same images show that bulldozing work was done after the destruction. It is even possible to see the tracks left by the Israeli bulldozers.   A comparison of satellite imagery before and after the detonation shows the extent of the disaster inflicted upon the small village. Consecutive images from the OnGeo™ Intelligence and Planet satellites captured on October 19 and 24 show a large area razed, with all its features having vanished.   The Legal Agenda interviewed members of five of the small village’s families at the location where they are now sheltering, a little more than a year after they were driven out (the village’s inhabitants were displaced at the beginning of the war in October 2023). The sessions focused on a large, printed map of the village today.   With great difficulty, Zainab Jaber, in her 20s, identified her grandfather’s estate, which she said was built more than two centuries ago. Initially, it was possible to identify the remnants of an Alpha telecommunications tower. Beside the fallen tower, it was possible to discern a large tree that withstood the destruction. “This tree was in the middle of a small square between three houses that made up my grandfather’s estate,” she said. “It is a large, ancient tree that their bulldozers perhaps weren’t able to demolish”. In the images from today, the tree is surrounded by empty spaces.   To the west lie the remnants of a small forest that the villagers called “al-Waara” (the rough land). All that remains of this forest is a few burnt trees stripped of their leaves. This forest contained conifers and hugged the pond, the husayniyya [a building used by Shia Muslims for religious practices], and the new cemetery.  

The Inhabitants of Mhaibib: “They Want to Erase Us from History and Geography”

The new cemetery in the village was bulldozed. The signs of the bulldozing that demolished all the graves and the tracks of the vehicles are clearly apparent, although no trace of the graves remain. A woman in her 50s whom we met said, “The bulldozing of the graves indicates that they wanted to wipe out all traces of those of us who have died, not just to evict and wipe out all traces of us the living. They want it to be as though we – as an old and deeply rooted people, not just individuals – were never here”.   The people we met spoke about cherished memories by the pond: “going for picnics, love stories, and families taking in the fresh air every afternoon”. The husayniyya was a landmark to which the villagers were attached, although the Shrine of Benjamin was their center for religious occasions and funerals.   The Shrine of Benjamin was the largest of the village’s buildings and was located at the highest point. It too was completely wiped out, including the courtyard, the arched chambers with their historic architecture, the tomb said to contain Prophet Benjamin, and the historic cemetery. Today, the shrine’s location can only be discerned from the remains of the stone platforms that the villagers would ascend to reach the historic religious shrine. Jaber commented, “Benjamin Netanyahu destroyed the shrine of Benjamin the prophet. Be sure to mention this irony in the report”.   Because Mhaibib was bulldozed after it was destroyed, all traces of the neighborhoods, with their traditional heritage houses, narrow streets, and special architectural character, have disappeared. These neighborhoods were among the few historic neighborhoods in Jabal Amil.   Satellite imagery clearly shows that the olive groves surrounding the village were also incinerated and bulldozed. One of the owners of these groves, also from the Jaber family, says that they were the people’s livelihood and a tool they used to survive in the remote village.   A man from Mhaibib in his 70s said in the interview he gave during our work to document the village’s demolished features, “They want to erase us from history and geography, rob us of our village, prevent us from returning, and wipe out any trace of us”.  

Destroying Mhaibib: A Symbol of Systematic Erasure and Cultural Purging in Southern Lebanon

This precise documentation of the destruction of Mhaibib and investigation into the Israeli narrative based on open-source intelligence (OSINT) clearly exposes fabrication in the Israeli narrative and a blatant discrepancy between its claims and the evidence-backed reality. It shows how graphics and media propaganda can be used to justify the erasure of a historic site without offering any material evidence of real tunnels or military installations underneath it.   Open sources reveal that over the course of a year, just five buildings in Mhaibib were targeted, but when the ground operation came, it was accompanied by an apparent decision to blow up the entire village by boobytrapping its dwellings. Nevertheless, the Israeli propaganda narrative has continued to make unsubstantiated claims about “command centers” that are nothing but digital concept drawings lacking any evidence on the ground (rather, the evidence contradicts them).   One advantage of the village is its strategic location overlooking, from its houses and the rock of its shrine, vast swaths of Southern Lebanon and Galilee. However, the methodological erasure of the village’s homes, landmarks, cemeteries, trees, and even its name reveals a pattern of war crimes aimed at erasing the historic and cultural existence of entire southern border villages, shredding their demographic and cultural fabric and their sources of subsistence, and transforming their lands into vacant spaces devoid of history and identity.    

  This article is an edited translation from Arabic.