Former Agriculture Minister Abbas Al-Hajj Hassan reported that white phosphorus munitions burned approximately 40,000 mature olive trees in 2023 alone. Olive groves, citrus orchards, banana plantations, and tobacco fields in the areas now under Israeli military control account for more than half of Lebanon's total farm output.

The environmental damage extends beyond crops. The ministry's third damage assessment found a 49 percent decline in beehives, a 39 percent drop in fish production, and significant losses among cattle, sheep, and poultry. Irrigation networks have been destroyed, and vital bridges over the Litani River have been demolished, cutting farmers off from their land and isolating produce from markets.

The food security implications are severe. Hani warned that the risk to food security has increased from 17 to 27 percent across Lebanon's entire population—a catastrophic jump for a country already grappling with economic collapse and political paralysis.

Environment Minister Tamara Al-Zein has accused Israel of committing "three simultaneous forms of destruction"—domicide (destruction of housing), urbicide (systematic targeting of urban infrastructure), and ecocide (environmental destruction). She described the agricultural and environmental damage as "an act of ecocide, with repercussions extending beyond direct destruction."

"The environmental damage we are facing is not merely an environmental issue but is also linked to public health, food security, livelihoods, the social fabric and the country's resilience," Al-Zein said in a ministry report published in April.

The World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment estimates total losses at $14 billion, comprising $6.8 billion in physical damage and $7.2 billion in economic losses. Environmental sector losses alone reached $512 million, equivalent to 7.5 percent of total national losses, with overall recovery needs estimated at about $11 billion.

The use of herbicides to clear vegetation in the border area is part of a broader Israeli security strategy to eliminate cover for militants, improve visibility, and reduce the risk of ambush. But Lebanese officials argue the approach goes far beyond security necessity, amounting to deliberate environmental destruction.

The Legal Agenda, a Beirut-based nonprofit research organization, has described the spraying of pesticides as a violation of Rule 76 of Customary International Humanitarian Law, which prohibits the use of herbicides as a method of warfare if they cause widespread, long-term damage to the environment.

Tarek Mazraani, an architect from the border village of Houla and chair of a committee representing displaced residents, said the areas now under Israeli military control were among the most agriculturally significant in Lebanon. "What has been lost is not marginal land," he told Arab News.

What remains of Lebanon's citrus production lies further north, around Sidon and Sarafand, north of the Litani. "But even there, agriculture has effectively ground to a halt. Farmers' homes have become shelters for the displaced. The land sits untended," Mazraani said.

For farmers who briefly returned after the 2024 ceasefire to plant tobacco in hope of a spring harvest, the resumption of war in March meant their crops burned in the fields. Hundreds of thousands of residents remain displaced, unable to return to villages under Israeli occupation or destroyed in the fighting.

Videos circulating on social media show Israeli soldiers harvesting vegetables from gardens in evacuated border villages, preparing meals inside homes, and then demolishing them. "It is painful and deeply humiliating," Mazraani said. "Soldiers broke in, ransacked what remained and desecrated land that families here have farmed for centuries."

Beyond the physical destruction, there is cultural erasure. Mazraani pointed to the disappearance or destruction of antiquities, village archives, land ownership deeds, and manuscripts left behind during the mass displacement. "This is another form of cultural erasure, following the destruction of villages and the severing of people's connection to their land. It is an uprooting of history and geography."

Al-Zein said Lebanon's right to hold Israel accountable for environmental damage is "non-negotiable," regardless of political disagreements over the war. She called for international partnerships to address the high cost of remediation, warning that recovery will require broad solidarity and significant resources.

The immediate question is whether the land can recover at all. Chemical contamination from glyphosate and white phosphorus can persist in soil for years, potentially rendering agricultural land unusable even after the fighting stops. For a country already facing economic collapse and food insecurity, the loss of its agricultural heartland may prove as devastating as the war itself.