BrunoThevenin

Photojournalist
based in Madrid

Award of Excellence
Pictures of the Year International 83, 2026

Work / Story 03 of 16

The Claws Return to Lebanon

Location
Lebanon
Subject
Conflict
frames
21
Original title
El Salto: The Claws Return to Lebanon
Um Hamed, una mujer libanesa desplazada de Nabi Chit (Al-Nabi Shayth), regresa para inspeccionar lo que queda de su hogar tras varios días de ausencia. Su vivienda fue reducida a escombros por un ataque aéreo israelí en el marco de una de las operaciones más controvertidas de la ofensiva. Durante la primera semana de marzo, el ejército israelí ejecutó una incursión comando nocturna con el objetivo de recuperar los restos de Ron Arad, un piloto desaparecido en 1986. La operación resultó fallida y desencadenó una respuesta de la población local, que plantó cara a las fuerzas incursas. En su retirada, las fuerzas israelíes castigaron la zona con una ola de bombardeos sistemáticos, dejando tras de sí un rastro de destrucción total que ha forzado el éxodo masivo de los residentes de Nabi Chit. Líbano

01 / 21

Um Hamed, una mujer libanesa desplazada de Nabi Chit (Al-Nabi Shayth), regresa para inspeccionar lo que queda de su hogar tras varios días de ausencia. Su vivienda fue reducida a escombros por un ataque aéreo israelí en el marco de una de las operaciones más controvertidas de la ofensiva. Durante la primera semana de marzo, el ejército israelí ejecutó una incursión comando nocturna con el objetivo de recuperar los restos de Ron Arad, un piloto desaparecido en 1986. La operación resultó fallida y desencadenó una respuesta de la población local, que plantó cara a las fuerzas incursas. En su retirada, las fuerzas israelíes castigaron la zona con una ola de bombardeos sistemáticos, dejando tras de sí un rastro de destrucción total que ha forzado el éxodo masivo de los residentes de Nabi Chit. Líbano

Lebanon bleeds from the same wounds that could never be bandaged.

“Do you hear that sound? We call it the sound of the monster,” points out Mahdi Abu Zeid, a 30-year-old volunteer paramedic, while gesturing toward the sky in reference to the constant hum of the Israeli drone.

At that moment, Mahdi does not know that this same sound, just one week later, will be the last sound he ever hears. While evacuating his colleagues, Mahdi is killed by a drone strike, becoming one of more than 80 healthcare workers killed by Israel since the start of this offensive in Lebanon, which began on March 2nd.

This new incursion is not an isolated event. As in Gaza, the Israeli government's rhetoric has revived the dehumanization of the Arab as a "human animal" or "savage" to strip them of their right to existence and to their land. This is not merely a military operation; it is a colonization strategy to empty the territory and justify its occupation. The systematic killing of healthcare workers and the destruction of civilian infrastructure seek to turn southern Lebanon into an uninhabitable zone, paving the way for a territorial expansion that is no longer even concealed.

Israel began this offensive by issuing a death sentence south of the Litani River: anything remaining in that area would be considered a target. Weeks of bombings sought to impose a "buffer zone" of rubble in places where its army has barely managed to advance a few kilometers. Now, under the shadow of a ceasefire, they have drawn a new border: the "Yellow Line."As in Gaza, this boundary is not only military but extractivist; it extends to the sea to ensure control of valuable energy deposits. The modus operandi repeats itself in the face of the passivity—implying inaction—of the international community: the adversary is dehumanized to justify annihilation, while the map of Israel expands.

The toll of this latest offensive in just over a month is devastating: it has already exceeded 2,300 deaths, including 130 children and 110 women, as well as 15 journalists—the latest killed on April 22nd during the supposed ceasefire. With around 6,700 wounded and more than one million displaced people forced to flee their homes, the country faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

The evidence is clear and visible to anyone willing to look: bombed hospitals, forced displacements, direct attacks on UNIFIL, the use of white phosphorus, and the systematic erasure of southern villages. To this is added the destruction of critical infrastructure. Everything is documented, but it hits the wall of international inaction. A global community that, after years of normalizing the agony in Lebanon and the genocide in the Strip, has validated extermination as an acceptable political tool.

It is not that we did not know what was coming; it is that silence has become the background music of this new tragedy. Today, that lack of response allows the same pattern of destruction executed in the Strip to be transferred now, with the same impunity, to Lebanese territory.

Las garras vuelven al Líbano
El Líbano se desangra por las mismas heridas que no pudieron vendar.
Elsaltodiario.com

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