Dispatches from the Lebanese Stronghold

In Photos: Displaced Families Return to Devastated Neighborhoods

War on Lebanon
Photographs by
Marwan Bou Haidar
Published on 24 June 2026

As the U.S.-Iran MoU facilitates the return of some residents to their towns and villages, southerners are witnessing their neighborhoods in ruins for the first time.

Families returning home after months of displacement are finding their homes reduced to rubble and entire streets unrecognizable.

Across southern Lebanon, Israel destroyed 11,095 buildings, damaged 17,891 housing units, according to a UNDP assessment. Essential civilian infrastructure has also been severely impacted, with extensive damage to power grids, water stations, telephone lines, and sewage networks, leaving entire communities without access to basic services.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health announced yesterday that the death toll from Israeli attacks since March 2 has risen to 4,211 with 12,173 others injured.

Photojournalist Marwan Bou Haidar documents the scale of destruction in Srifa, Bir el-Salasel, and Tebnine.

A heavily damaged residential building in Tebnine, South Lebanon, with its facade peppered by shrapnel marks. In the foreground, concrete structures have collapsed entirely into a chaotic mound of rubble and tangled iron reinforcement bars. A woman wearing a black abaya and blue hijab stands on the debris-strewn dirt road on the right, looking toward the camera.

Tebnine, Bint Jbeil, South Lebanon. June 24, 2026. (Marwan Bou Haidar/The Public Source)

A wide, high-angle view capturing an extensive landscape of devastation in Tebnine, South Lebanon. Entire neighborhoods are reduced to sprawling fields of gray concrete rubble and pulverized buildings. A narrow dirt track snakes through the center of the debris field, where a solitary white minivan is driving under a clear blue sky.
A high-angle panoramic view of massive structural destruction in Tebnine, South Lebanon. Mounds of shattered concrete and exposed rebar line a curved dirt road that has been cleared through the ruins. A dark gray hatchback and a black sedan are navigating the road amidst the completely flattened landscape.
A top-down, high-angle shot focusing on a cleared dirt path winding through deep piles of concrete ruins in Tebnine, South Lebanon. Two stray dogs—one larger brown dog and a smaller one—walk along the empty path, surrounded by a vast expanse of pulverized buildings.

Tebnine, Bint Jbeil, South Lebanon. June 24, 2026. (Marwan Bou Haidar/The Public Source)

A white Islamic Health Association Civil Defense van with red striped markings and Arabic text reading "Srifa town" parked next to a severely damaged building that has pancaked diagonally. Rubble, household debris, and twisted metal cover the ground, with a yellow excavator visible working in the background.

Srifa, Sour, South Lebanon. June 24, 2026. (Marwan Bou Haidar/The Public Source)

A high-angle view looking down at a large concrete multi-story building that has completely pancaked flat onto the ground in Bir el-Salasel, South Lebanon. Three men stand or walk on the cleared asphalt street adjacent to the massive slabs of flattened concrete.
A side profile view of a camouflage military vehicle with a dark green soft-top canvas being driven by a soldier in uniform. In the background across the street stands a heavily shelled, ruined multi-story concrete building with its interior rooms completely exposed.

Bir el-Salasel, Bint Jbeil, South Lebanon. June 24, 2026. (Marwan Bou Haidar/The Public Source)

A severely damaged cemetery in Srifa, South Lebanon. The black and gray marble tombstones are cracked, broken, and heavily blanketed in concrete dust, loose rubble, shattered blocks, and uprooted tree branches. A stray mattress lies discarded among the graves.

Srifa, Sour, South Lebanon. June 24, 2026. (Marwan Bou Haidar/The Public Source)

A street-level view of a road in Srifa, South Lebanon, lined with heavily shelled and collapsed buildings. Large commemorative portrait posters of young men line the lower right side of the road. Yellow and green flags hang from wires above the street as a red pickup truck and other vehicles drive through.

Srifa, Sour, South Lebanon. June 24, 2026. (Marwan Bou Haidar/The Public Source)

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