What was feared since Wednesday was produced in Mansouri. On Friday morning, 11 September, Israeli forces detonated most of the public school in the town of Tyre District. There would be only a small part left. This destruction comes after a new day marked by dynamiting of houses and infrastructure, airstrikes and artillery fire in several areas of southern Lebanon. On Thursday night, an explosion of exceptional power at Ali al-Taher even produced seismic waves comparable to those of an earthquake greater than magnitude 4.
In Mansouri, the threat to school has become a reality
The information that fell on Friday 11 September at 10:04 a.m. confirms the dreaded scenario for two days. According to the National Information Agency, Israeli forces detonated most of Mansuri’s public school. Only a small portion of the building would still stand.
This destruction had become predictable since Wednesday. On 9 September, an Israeli small, remotely piloted aircraft deposited explosive material on the roof of the facility. A large explosion was then reported nearby. However, the information available at that time did not indicate that the school would actually be destroyed.
The school welcomed 336 students according to data from the Centre for Educational Research and Development. Its destruction comes just a few days away from the school year planned for mid-September, while the conflict already greatly disrupts education in the south of the country.
The case of the school now takes on another dimension. It is no longer just a building placed under threat in a locality exposed to military operations. Public infrastructure for children has been largely destroyed in an area where building demolitions are increasing.
South Lebanon: Mansouri in the centre of blasting
Over the past 24 hours, Mansuri has remained one of the main sources of Israeli operations in the Tyre District. More than ten violent explosions had already been recorded between midnight and Thursday morning in the town and its outlying areas. The deflagrations caused a shock to Tyre and several surrounding villages.
Operations were not limited to air strikes. Houses and infrastructure were dynamited inside the town. Artesian wells were also destroyed, according to reports on Thursday. At the same time, attacks targeted Mansouri and his peripheral sector towards Majdel Zoun.
A particular process has also been reported in recent days. Israeli drones placed on some buildings containers containing explosives prior to firing. This technique allows for the destruction of houses without a land unit necessarily having to enter each building directly.
These operations explain the succession of detonations heard in the Tyre region. They differ from conventional bombardments: part of the explosions correspond to charges placed or deposited in order to cause the destruction of precise structures.
The destruction of the public school on Friday morning is now part of this sequence.
A night of strikes between Tyre, Bint Jbeil and Nabatiyah
Mansouri was not the only sector affected. The last 24 hours have been marked by several strikes and bombings on a much wider axis of southern Lebanon.
Artillery fired at the Houjeir and Saluki valleys and at Zawtar al-Sharqiya in the direction of Mayfadoun. A strike was also reported in the area between Zibqine and Chihine.
Several raids involved Qantara and the adjacent areas of Wadi Saluki. Attacks also targeted Nabatiyah al-Fawqa. In the area of Al-Arayesh, near Haris and Haddatha, a house was struck and destroyed.
A large explosion has also been reported east of Khiam. Other destruction operations were recorded in several southern localities during this sequence, while Israeli drone and aircraft overflights continued over different areas.
The chain is important. The South is no longer confined to raids separated by periods of decline. Air strikes, artillery fire and blasting of buildings can now succeed or take place simultaneously in several areas.
In Ali al-Taher, an explosion recorded as an earthquake
The most spectacular event of the last hours, however, occurred on Thursday evening in the area of Ali al-Taher, near Nabatiyah. At approximately 2108 hours, an extremely powerful explosion shook a large part of southern Lebanon. The vibrations were felt away from the explosion point.
The phenomenon was significant enough to be detected by seismological stations. The Lebanese National Geophysical Centre recorded waves produced by the explosion, with an energy comparable to that of an earthquake of a magnitude slightly greater than 4. It was therefore not a natural earthquake, but the seismic signal generated by massive military destruction.
The Israeli army announced that it had destroyed a vast underground Hezbollah network below the heights of Ali al-Taher. According to its version, the complex included more than two kilometres of tunnels as well as weapons command and storage facilities. Not all of these military claims can be independently verified.
The power of the deflagration nevertheless gives an indication of the extent of the operation. The explosion was recorded by scientific instruments and heard in much of the South. It is one of the most important episodes of the military sequence underway around Nabatiyah.
Destructions that go beyond the stated military objectives
The last 24 hours show above all a visible evolution of ground operations. The destruction is no longer confined to positions presented by Israel as directly related to Hezbollah. In Mansouri, houses, hydraulic infrastructure and now the mainstay of a public school were destroyed.
This multiplication of blasting also raises the question of the return of the inhabitants. Destroying a home does not have the same consequences as a temporary military presence. The disappearance of housing, water systems, roads or schools is a lasting change in living conditions in the localities concerned.
The problem is particularly acute as the re-entry approaches. Tens of thousands of Lebanese students remain affected by population displacement and damage to educational infrastructure. Schools still serve as shelters for displaced families, while other schools in the South have been damaged or rendered unusable.
In Mansouri, the question is now very concrete. The 336 students enrolled in this school prior to its destruction will not return to their school in its previous condition when conditions allow a normal resumption of classes.
Dynamiting becomes a component of the conflict in the South
The events of Thursday and Friday morning also show that the word « explosion » now covers several realities in southern Lebanon. Some detonations come from air strikes or artillery. Others result from voluntary demolition of houses or infrastructure. In Ali al-Taher, the destruction of an underground network required an explosion of such power as was detected by seismological stations.
This distinction allows us to understand what people live in. A succession of large explosions does not necessarily mean a series of air raids. In some localities, the explosions correspond to a systematic destruction of the building.
Mansouri is now the most visible example. The town had already suffered extensive destruction before the last 24 hours. On Wednesday, the threat to the school added an additional symbol to the campaign. Friday morning, this symbol became a material fact.
According to the initial information, only a small part of the establishment remains.
A sequence that confirms the fears expressed on Wednesday
The Lebanese army itself denounced this week an intensification of Israeli operations. It believed that attacks on residential areas and institutions threatened existing arrangements and hindered its own deployment in the South.
The succession of events since Thursday reinforces this concern. Mansouri suffered more than ten explosions in a few hours, houses and wells were destroyed, several areas of the South were bombed and Ali al-Taher was shaken by an underground destruction operation of exceptional magnitude.
On Friday morning, the destruction of the public school adds a major civil infrastructure to this material balance sheet.
The contrast with the situation observed 48 hours earlier is striking. Wednesday, the explosives placed on the roof allowed only to write that Mansouri school wasdirectly threatened. It was then necessary to be careful: its destruction was not yet confirmed and the Israeli intention could not be established with certainty.
This Friday, September 11, this caution is no longer necessary on the fact itself.
Most of the school was destroyed.
And in southern Lebanon, the question is now about the next buildings and localities that could suffer the same fate.
