Israel has been applying the so-called “Rafah doctrine” to southern Lebanon, levelling infrastructure in Lebanese towns as it did in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to avoid repopulation, Elijah Magnier, a political analyst and former war correspondent specialised in the Middle East, told Al Jazeera.
“They think they will not allow anyone to return,” Magnier said. “This is what Israelis are doing because they are unaccountable and they have the blessing of the US.”
The term “Rafah doctrine” has come to indicate Israel’s systematic destruction of residential areas, hospitals, schools, universities and all other infrastructure to prevent the return of the local population and establish a sterile area that serves their security needs.
Nicholas Noe, editor in chief of mideastwire.com, said this tactic “is also about eliminating population”.
“It sees supportive population as legitimate military targets,” Noe said. He added that, unlike Hamas in Gaza, Lebanon’s Hezbollah has had the means to resist the Israeli army’s advances, preventing a swift invasion similar to that of 1982.
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