// WIRED US/UK — MONDO
Israel Is Destroying the Machinery South Lebanon Needs to Rebuild
They had bulldozers and excavators, the machines needed to clear the rubble, but they were afraid to use them. Instead, locals began clearing the debris by hand after Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon throughout 2025. These weren’t just people’s homes; they were also businesses that had construction equipment—the kind that could have made recovering far less arduous—but the machines’ owners feared that bringing them out would invite another attack.
“They felt that just the presence of this heavy machinery that was typically used in reconstruction was a threat,” said Ramzi Kaiss, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher in Lebanon.
Reconstruction depends on more than replacing buildings that have been lost. Roadways need to be cleared, water networks must be restored, and there need to be factories that can supply construction materials and equipment. However, reports from HRW, aid workers, and UN peacekeepers have documented how Israeli attacks have been damaging those systems and how the fear of further strikes has obstructed their repair.
“We did see incidents in which construction equipment was unfortunately targeted, which made it difficult,” said Kandice Ardiel, a spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). “Not just for these repairs and the removal of rubble to happen, but again, for people to return to their lives.”
Many residents did return after the 2024 fighting, “and they did rebuild,” said Ardiel. But afterward, “we’ve seen things just destroyed again.”
In a December 2025 investigation, HRW examined four Israeli attacks on heavy-machinery showrooms and maintenance facilities as well as a factory that produced cement and asphalt. The strikes took place between August and October 2025, after the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Human Rights Watch reported that the attacks destroyed more than 360 pieces of construction equipment and classified the strikes as apparent war crimes.
Each of these targets had large supplies of necessary resources. Kaiss visited four of these sites, across which she saw a massive scale of destruction: “These are hundreds and hundreds of heavy machinery used in reconstruction-related processes.”
The Israeli military said on Telegram that the equipment and materials supported, or were intended to support, Hezbollah’s reconstruction of its infrastructure. HRW said it found no evidence of military targets at or around the sites. Though the organization could not establish the intended use of every attacked machine or store of materials, it did not find any evidence that these supplies were intended for military use. HRW did, however, verify civilian uses for some equipment.
And though reconstruction has stalled, the destruction has continued. By Israeli defense minister Israel Katz’s own count, 23,000 homes and more than 60 villages have been destroyed as of October. A New York Times analysis found that Israeli forces have largely leveled 48 of the roughly 60 villages and towns in the area they occupy, most of them after the renewed ceasefire in April. The Israeli military told the Times it had received no directive to carry out widespread damage to structures or to demolish villages. (WIRED Middle East contacted the Israel Defense Forces for comment but received no response at the time of publication.)
Beyond the buildings themselves, damage to critical infrastructure, such as water sources, has also halted people’s ability to return home. Doctors Without Borders stated in September that attacks on already weakened water systems continued despite the April ceasefire.