"The Word 'Ceasefire' Has Lost Its Meaning": Lylla Younes on Israel's Ethnic Cleansing of South Lebanon

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AMY GOODMAN : We begin today’s show in Lebanon, where Israel is continuing to carry out deadly attacks despite a call by President Trump to halt strikes. In the deadliest attack, Israel killed nine people in the city of Tyre earlier today. Israel also ordered residents of Tyre to leave the city. On Monday, an Israeli attack near a Red Cross center in Tyre killed five people. Four paramedics were wounded.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said Monday it had fired rockets at advancing Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. Israel’s repeated attacks on Lebanon prompted Iran on Sunday to carry out its first strikes on Israel since April. Israel responded by retaliating against Iran. On Monday, Iran announced it would halt new attacks on Israel, but warned it would carry out a more severe response if Israel continues to attack Lebanon.

We go now to Beirut, where we’re joined by Lylla Younes, investigative journalist and writer based in Beirut, her most recent piece - for Drop Site headlined “'You Either Leave Right Now or You Die' — Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of a Village in Lebanon.”

Why don’t you describe what you have written about, Lylla, and talk about the — Iran attacking Israel over what it’s doing in Lebanon, and then Israel striking back, then, apparently, President Trump speaking to the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and warning him to stop hitting Iran, so they agreed, but they’re still attacking Lebanon?

LYLLA YOUNES : Sure. Thanks for having me, Amy.

So, first, I’ll take you to the village of Ain Arab, which is a small village in the plains near the southern border. That’s what I wrote about for my last Drop Site story . And it’s the story of what can only really be described as the ethnic cleansing of that village. People returned there after the, quote-unquote, “ceasefire” in mid-April — and I think this story, along with others, will tell you just how much the word “ceasefire” has lost its meaning in both Lebanon and in Gaza. But these, you know, villagers returned after the ceasefire. The first day that they’re there, an Israeli — a group of Israeli soldiers visit the village, tell them that there’s a curfew, and they set up a checkpoint on the southern end of the village. Twelve days later, they return, over a hundred of them, streaming behind an armored bulldozer. My source, Nasreen Abd Elaal, is at her corner store when this happens. They sweep into the village. They tell people, “You have two hours to leave.” They don’t even give them that, according to Nasreen. They go door to door, at gunpoint, telling people, “You leave right now, or we shoot you.” And I think that, you know, this story is really emblematic of what we’ve seen among villages in this southern region. And remember, Ain Arab is actually north of the so-called yellow line, underscoring the arbitrary nature of these boundaries.

So, you know, the kind of continued insistence that southern Lebanese people leave their land, head north, with nowhere to go, and, you know, what sources have told me, whether in the city of Sour, Tyre, as you were just talking about in your headlines, or in the city of Nabatieh or other villages across the south, is more and more people saying, “Well, we actually refuse to leave,” because for months now they’ve been forced into displacement. They’ve been forced to live in government shelters that are not adequate, are not clean. They’ve also been subjected to steep rent hikes and scrutiny, because many are from the Shia community, which Israel has made a point of targeting even into their displacement.

Now, as for the second part of your question, you know, Iran made very clear that an Israeli escalation in Beirut would derail negotiations. Israel clearly did not heed this call. They’ve been wanting to strike the southern suburbs, and they did, in broad daylight, in the neighborhood of Hayy al-Salam. And then, following that, Iran, in the evening, launched a volley of missiles towards Israel. Israel then responds, and then you have Trump on Truth Social, you know, write, “Stop shooting.” And I think it’s just really important to emphasize the absurdity of all of this, right? Because, you know, Trump is kind of waving his hands, saying, you know, “We want a deal. We want peace.” Let’s remember this all began with the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran. That’s kind of what this whole thing was sparked from. And the U.S.'s continued support for Israel's aggression in southern Lebanon is the reason we are where we are right now.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Lylla, you’ve also said that the [inaudible] Israel-Lebanon truce plan, and the one that was reached in 2024, two years ago, was the so-called ceasefire, is that now there’s these so-called pilot zones, where, basically, the Lebanese Army is supposed to sweep in and demilitarize them. Can you talk about that?

LYLLA YOUNES : Yes. So, basically, on June 3rd, following another round of negotiations between the Leban…