Lebanon says Israel burned 160 sq km in south

Lebanese officials and residents have accused the Israeli military of setting off fires that Lebanon's governmental National Council for Scientific Research says have burned 160 square kilometres of land in the country's south since October 2023.

The council says about half of the burned area was agricultural land. Its director, Chadi Abdallah, told AFP that around 85 square kilometres burned during the 2023-2024 hostilities and around 75 square kilometres this year, including 350 hectares after a June Israel-Lebanon deal.

An AFP photographer this month saw multiple fires in south Lebanon, mostly inside Israel's self-declared "security zone" along the border. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has accused Israel of pursuing a "scorched-earth policy" in the south, while Environment Minister Tamara Elzein accused the Israeli army of deliberately burning Lebanese land.

The Israeli army told AFP's Jerusalem bureau it "is aware of the potential environmental impact of its operations" and said its operations are carried out with precautions to reduce harm to civilians and the environment.

Hussein Fakih, who heads the civil defence agency for the Nabatieh region, said his teams have observed fires since July both inside and near areas where Israeli troops are stationed. He said the fires were sparked by Israeli bombs and drones and sometimes by incendiary phosphorous shells and cluster munitions.

In Kfarshuba, Mayor Qassem al-Qadri said an Israeli attack this month sparked a fire that spread across a broad area of mostly forest. Fakih said firefighters received permission to enter the area only the following day, after the fire had burned through it.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said this month that Israeli forces had uprooted 600 olive trees in one southern village. The environmental group Green Southerners says it has recorded widespread damage to forests, woods and farmland since 2023.