Israeli soldiers planted their Star of David flag Tuesday, October 8, on the ruins of the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, before withdrawing. Perched at 900 meters above sea level, this border village has an unobstructed view of the Israeli town of Avivim, less than a kilometer away. This victory claim, however fleeting, was the first made since Israel launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon, on September 30, to destroy Hezbollah's "offensive infrastructure."

It is highly symbolic. The last village to be evacuated by Israeli troops in 2000, after their 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, Maroun al-Ras was the scene of fierce clashes with Hezbollah during the war of summer 2006. From the promontory of the town's Iran Garden – the location where Israeli soldiers filmed themselves – former Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian had promised, in April 2023, "the collapse of the Zionist entity."

The replica of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock and the statue of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, which had long stood in this "garden of resistance" inaugurated in 2010 by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were destroyed by the Israeli soldiers. The military presence at Maroun al-Ras had been the subject of controversy for several days, due to their troops and tanks' proximity to United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base 6-52, home to an Irish contingent, which denounced the Israeli army's activities as "an extremely dangerous development."

Israeli soldiers fired tank rounds and destroyed ammunition seized near the base. The maneuvers were seen as a warning, after UNIFIL had refused to comply with Israel's September 30 request to evacuate 29 positions along the UN's "blue" demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon. "Israel's stated aim is not to stay on site, but to 'clear' a five-kilometer border strip, starting from the blue line. Will they stay to prevent Hezbollah from returning? They say their operations will only last a fortnight, but that's not credible," said a diplomatic source.

Commando and infantry units, accompanied by tanks and supported by intense air strikes and artillery fire, carried out incursions to the east of the border strip. This was the case in Yaroun, which appears to be entirely razed in a video filmed by a drone, which Le Monde was unable to independently authenticate.

Another axis of Israeli penetration has been observed around Odaisseh and Kfar Kila. On Tuesday, the Israeli army expanded its operations in the western part of the border strip with the deployment of a fourth division, bringing the number of soldiers it has mobilized on the northern front to almost 15,000. It has ordered the evacuation of the coastal area stretching from the Blue Line to the Awali River, which flows into the sea at the city of Sidon, 60 kilometers further north. That same day, Hezbollah announced that it had pushed back an Israeli infiltration into the border village of Labbouneh, located four kilometers from the UNIFIL headquarters in the town of Naqoura.

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