Palestinian
farmers try to extinguish fires on their land after Israeli soldiers
fired teargas at them as they harvested their olives, resulting in the
dry fields catching fire, in the village of Asira al-Qibliya. Armed Israeli settlers beat Jaafar Ashtiyeh,
the photographer who took this image, in the presence of Israeli
soldiers, hospitalising him, as he covered the settler violence against
the olive farmers. Ashtiyeh, a 58-year-old veteran photographer for AFP
in Palestine, was assaulted by a group of settlers despite him being
marked as pressPhotograph: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images
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[Palestinian photographer] Jaafar Ashtiyeh was covering violence against [Palestinian] olive farmers when [Israeli] settlers set upon him with the butts of their rifles
Israel was the world’s leading killer of
journalists in 2025, and has killed at least 225 journalists in Lebanon
and Gaza, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
Violence
has flared in recent months in the West Bank with near-daily attacks,
thefts or vandalism by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
Forest
fires sweep through the outskirts of the southern Lebanon village of
Kfar Shouba on 5 August after Israeli bombing, despite the ceasefire. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon
have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region,
as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing.
Environmental
groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding
Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment.
On
Tuesday, the Israeli military dropped flares in a wooded area outside
Khiam, in south Lebanon, sparking blazes. When firefighters attempted to
extinguish the flames, a drone struck close by, forcing them to
withdraw, the head of the civil defence in the Nabatieh region, Hussein
Fakih, said.
“Most of our missions are now
related to fires. There are enormous areas of woodland that have burned,
I don’t have the exact figures, but in the areas close to the
[frontline], around 30-40% of the land has been affected by fires,” he
said.
The Israeli military has caused fires
across south Lebanon, in particular in olive groves and agricultural
land, in the nearly two-months since the 17 June ceasefire that mostly
ended fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, according to videos and testimony from first responders.
The military was asked for comment on each of the wildfire incidents, but did not respond.
“They
started doing this right after the ceasefire, and there have been
incendiary bombs every day,” said Fakih. “Small drones come out and drop
incendiary materials, [white] phosphorus shells are fired at the
woodlands, in addition to illumination flares that they drop during the
daytime so the vegetation catches fire.”
Firefighters
and residents of other areas in south Lebanon describe similar blazes
being started by Israeli munitions and drones in dry scrub and
woodlands. On Friday, Israeli munitions created large wildfires in two
heavily forested areas: in Kfarchouba, close to the border, and between
Jezzine and the western Bekaa valley.
The
civil defence station chief in the area, Samir Hardan, said a fire was
started near Kfarchouba on Friday afternoon after a drone dropped a
munition in woodlands. After battling blazes overnight and extinguishing
them on Saturday, a second drone started another fire on Sunday, Hardan
said.
Firefighters, who are required to
coordinate their movements with the Lebanese army, which relays their
request to a “deconfliction” group that includes the Israeli military,
were given permission to fight the fires at only two spots, and not
other areas where fires were raging.
According to environmental groups, the fires are
part of a pattern of Israeli attacks against Lebanon’s environment,
which threaten the country’s woodlands and the biodiversity they
support, experts said.
