Israeli soldiers are engaged in the mass looting of civilian property from homes and businesses in occupied southern Lebanon, Haaretz reported on 23 April, citing the testimonies of soldiers and commanders.
The theft of motorcycles, televisions, paintings, sofas, and rugs is “wide-scale” and “routine,” according to the testimonies. Both senior and junior commanders overseeing operations in Lebanon are aware of the phenomenon but are taking no action to stop it.
“It’s on a crazy scale,” one soldier said. “Anyone who takes something – televisions, cigarettes, tools, whatever – immediately puts it in their vehicle or leaves it off to the side, not inside the army base, but it’s not hidden. Everyone sees it and understands.”
In response, the Israeli military claimed it takes disciplinary and criminal measures when necessary, and that Israeli military police conduct inspections at the border as troops return to Israel.
Haaretz notes, however, that some military police checkpoints that had been set up at border points from southern Lebanon to stop looting have since been removed, while at other border points, no such checkpoints were ever established.
The sources cited by Haaretz said some commanders simply look the other way, while others tell soldiers to stop looting, but take no action to punish those who do.
“In our unit, they don’t even comment or get angry. The battalion and brigade commanders know everything,” a soldier said.
“Lenient enforcement sends a clear message. If someone were dismissed or jailed, or if military police were stationed at the border, it would stop almost immediately. But when there is no punishment, the message is obvious,” another soldier added.
Some soldiers said commanders are reluctant to crack down on looting, fearing that doing so would prevent some of the army’s many reservist soldiers, who have served for long periods since the start of the genocide in Gaza in 2023, from responding to deployment orders.
“People here have served more than 500 days in the reserves. Commanders today – whether company, battalion, or even brigade level – can’t just send reservists to prison,” one said. “They know discipline in the IDF has eroded, and they have no real ability to enforce it. They prefer to keep things quiet, just so people will show up for the next round.”
The soldiers added that the looting has also been fueled by the army’s widespread destruction of homes and villages in southern Lebanon during military operations.
“Soldiers tell themselves, ‘What difference does it make if I take it? It’s going to be destroyed anyway.’”
Like in Gaza, the army has used explosives to wipe Lebanese southern villages off the map.
On 12 April, The Guardian reported that the “Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations.”
The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of “all houses” in border villages “in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza.” The Israeli military destroyed 90 percent of homes in Rafah, in southern Gaza, during the genocide that began in October 2023.
The looting in Lebanon has also expanded because Israeli soldiers occupying Lebanon are, “for the most part, not engaged in sustained, high-intensity combat,” Haaretz noted. “Instead, they spend extended periods in abandoned civilian areas – villages and towns whose residents fled before the troops arrived.”
Despite a so-called ceasefire reached last week between Hezbollah and Israel, Israeli occupation forces continue to occupy a “buffer zone” 10 kilometers deep along the border into Lebanese territory. Israel is seeking to annex Lebanese land to control additional water resources, build Jewish settlements to expand Greater Israel, and seize control of Lebanon’s offshore natural gas fields.
Israel’s latest attacks on Lebanon have displaced more than a million people and killed over 2,000, according to the Lebanese Health officials. Sixteen Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Lebanon offensive. Two Israeli civilians have also been killed, including one by Israeli army friendly fire.
Looting and property destruction by Israeli soldiers during their Genocide of Palestinians in Gaza have also been widespread.
Despite this, only one resulted in a criminal indictment, which was ultimately resolved in a plea deal, Haaretz reported in February.
According to the Israeli newspaper, at least six additional criminal investigations were opened in 2024 over accusations of looting or property destruction by soldiers during the war, but none resulted in an indictment.
“The military believes these cases represent only the tip of the iceberg, in light of footage circulating on social media showing soldiers vandalizing and looting Palestinian property,” Haaretz wrote.
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