Images verified by AFP show a series of explosions in a Lebanese community near the border with Israel, where hundreds of homes have been destroyed by the Israeli army, a local official said.

Aerial footage released on social media shows the blowing up of more than a dozen buildings in the southern Lebanese community of Mays el Zabal. Thick columns of smoke rise into the sky, testifying to the power of the explosions.

Since late September, when Israel began ground operations in southern Lebanon, similar scenes have been captured in aerial footage from several border communities, including Maybib near Mays el Zabal.

Israel says it wants to neutralize pro-Iranian Hezbollah and push it away from its borders to allow the safe return of residents of border areas in the north who have been forced to flee their homes by attacks from southern Lebanon.

For its part, Hezbollah accuses the Israeli army of pursuing a “scorched earth” policy in its attempt to create a “dead zone” along the border.

Video from Mays el Zabal shows massive explosions near a hospital, which had been evacuated, according to community leader Abdel-Monim Souker. “70% of Mays el Zabal has been destroyed,” he told AFP, noting that it had about 1,200 houses. “The goal of the Israeli enemy is the systematic destruction” of the community, he emphasized. The community leader reported that Mays el Zabal has been deserted and only four residents, aged 85-90, remain there, waiting to be removed by the Red Cross and the Lebanese army.

Earlier today, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced Israeli “crimes” that have spread “death and destruction”.

In late October, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that almost daily the Israeli army was blowing up houses in seven border communities.

On October 26, the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) announced that they had used “400 tons of explosives” to destroy a “tunnel” in which Hezbollah was hiding “anti-tank missiles” and “rockets” in the border community of Andesa.