The Americans losing homes to Israel’s war in Lebanon

Hassan Ammar/AP/File

Maysa Moghnie’s childhood home in south Lebanon was the culmination of decades of work. She recounts how her father spent most of his life building the palatial family compound in the village of Burj Rahal, room after room. “All the memories we have are of him building this house,” said Moghnie, an American-Lebanese dual citizen. She now lives in Irvine, California, where she is raising her own children.

Video footage of her twin sister’s engagement party two years ago, filled with joy and music, shows what a grand home it had been. A three-story compound of traditional stone walls, it featured ornate stone-column balconies with slanted red-brick roofs. The piece de resistance was a grand split staircase that landed on a spacious terrace. In the video, the family and their guests are dancing.

All of it is gone now, destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on May 9. On paper, there was a ceasefire in place, but in reality, it was a period of sustained Israeli military assaults , and Hezbollah rocket fire. The images her sister captured after the strike show the trajectory of the projectile, which ripped through floor after floor, and left a gaping hole covered in a thick layer of white dust.

By chance, her parents and her sister had left the house just three days before the strike, because her mother couldn’t sleep. “My mom couldn’t take the drones and the airplanes and all those really harsh sounds anymore,” she said. They learned of the strike through neighbors.

Moghnie is one of several American citizens who told CNN that their family homes have been destroyed in Israel’s war against Hezbollah , which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says is targeting enemy positions. Since the fighting resumed in March this year, after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel following US-Israeli strikes on Iran, almost 18,000 homes have been destroyed, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assessment published in June.

Even after the nominal ceasefire went into effect in April, Israeli forces pushed deeper into Lebanese territory. Most US citizens have now left southern Lebanon; the few that remain have stayed behind to work, to protect their business or because they are simply attached to their land. Moghnie’s mother-in-law is still there, for instance, her home still standing, despite damaged walls and shattered windows from nearby bombings.

So is Anwar Ghaida, an American business owner whose property was hit twice – once in 2024, and again earlier this year.

The first time made headlines. The strike killed three journalists who had been sleeping in one of Ghaida’s bungalows, which he rents out alongside a wedding venue in the village of Hasbaya. Ghaida thinks the strike was deliberate. The journalists were reporting for Al Manar, a Hezbollah-owned news channel, and Al Mayadeen, a pro-Iranian news network. They were among 18 journalists from various news outlets staying there while reporting on the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that raged between September and November 2024.

The second time, Ghaida thinks the Israelis may have made a mistake. “They hit the wedding venue, mainly the kitchen area but it was empty at the time,” he said of the late evening attack. The destruction was consequential nonetheless. “My business is ruined financially. I could do weddings for 500 people, now all my kitchen equipment and furniture is gone.”

By the time of the second attack, on March 25 this year, his business had already dwindled. With the conflict raging, “nobody was getting married” and the guesthouse was no longer popular with journalists. “When they go online and they see that it has been bombed, I think they think twice before making reservations,” he said.

Two of his children live in the US, but he doesn’t have the heart to join them. “I have my brother here with his children, my mom, my sister… I’m not going to leave them,” the 60-year-old told CNN, in a phone conversation from his home in Hasbaya. Besides, he doesn’t think he could start again at his age.

At night, Ghaida hears Israeli drones overhead, despite the ceasefire. “Last night was really bad,” he said. “You could hear shelling and big explosions in different towns.”

A common refrain among Lebanese-Americans is that the situation in southern Lebanon has never been so bad. Some lived through the 2006 conflict. Others remember the last time Israel occupied southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000. Their family homes had survived it all.

But this time, Israeli tactics have been far more aggressive in the South, soldiers have razed whole villages to the ground as they seized territory.

CNN analysis of satellite imagery this spring showed that Israeli forces have destroyed civilian architecture, including mosques, pharmacies, cafes and auto repair shops. Videos filmed by residents show controlled demolitions being carried out, while satellite imagery reveals a pattern of Israeli bulldozers and excavators demolishing homes.

The destruction is taking place behind the so-called “yellow line” drawn by Israel, which marks out a six-mile-wide strip of Lebanese territory now occupied by Israeli troops, roughly covering the same land it occupied until 2000. Residents of dozens of villages have been forcibly displaced.

Israel’s defense minister has justified the destruction as a strategic decision to remove any threat of Hezbollah. Last week, the UN human rights chief Volker Türk called on Israel to end its occupation and halt the demolition of homes.

In the US, the Arab American Civil Rights League (ACRL) in Dearborn, Michigan, is preparing to file a civil lawsuit against the United States on behalf of Americans who lost homes and property in the conflict. “The American government has an obligation to protect American citizens and American property overseas,” said Nasser Beydoun, chairman of the ACRL and lead plaintiff. “A lot of these homes [in southern Lebanon that are owned by Americans] are being destroyed with our own tax dollars. So, somebody has to be held accountable.”

The suit seeks financial compensation and wants Congress to divest US aid from the Israeli military units involved in the destruction.

Ramiz Dallah/Anadolu/Getty Images

Behind the legal case are roughly 180 families whose ties to Lebanon span generations, like 70-year-old Mohamad Fayyad Reda, who moved back to his ancestral land after a long career with the Bank of New York on Wall Street.

“I had a decent life in the States but I was homesick. So I retired, took my pension with me and I built myself a nice home of local bricks and stones,” Reda said.

His village of Yaroun, a mixed Christian-Muslim village, sits on the border with Israel and is currently occupied by Israeli forces. No Lebanese are allowed in. With no one to bring news from home, like many refugees, Reda has been keeping tabs on his property through satellite imagery.

“After the first or the second ceasefire, that’s when they decided to demolish the house,” he said. “And they started a systematic demolition. They demolished the whole town. There are two or three homes left which they probably used as a base, but they destroyed every single house. It looked like they are trying to be there to stay .”

Reda has since moved in with his children in Winter Springs, Florida. “Even the cemetery, my mother’s bones… It is terrible, it is terrible,” Reda said over the phone.

“This time it’s much different,” confirmed Jihad Samhat, a US army veteran who fled Aynata, a village on the wrong side of the yellow line. “We’ve been occupied several times in south Lebanon,” he said, but “Lebanese people from my town maintained a presence there throughout the [previous] occupations.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Samhat served in the US Army’s 1st Cavalry Division before moving to Lebanon, where he spent more than 15 years working in demining and unexploded ordnance clearance with the United Nations. Then he opened Radio Beirut, a popular music venue, which he ran for nine years before closing it down after the Beirut port explosion in 2020.

When the fighting started, he relocated to the US with his wife, newborn child, mother-in-law and their dog.

They watched from afar as the destruction reached their village. “One day, I can see my home, and it’s still standing. It’s still there,” he explained. “But then a week after, I get another satellite image of the village and the house is not there anymore. It’s dust.”

哈桑·阿马尔/美联社/档案照片

玛伊萨·莫格尼位于黎巴嫩南部的童年故居，是她父亲数十年心血的结晶。她回忆说，父亲几乎倾注了一生，在布尔杰·拉哈尔村一栋接一栋地建造了这座富丽堂皇的家族宅邸。“我们所有的记忆都与他建造这座房子有关，”拥有美国和黎巴嫩双重国籍的莫格尼说道。她现在居住在加利福尼亚州尔湾市，在那里抚养着自己的孩子。

两年前她双胞胎妹妹的订婚派对视频，充满了欢乐和音乐，展现了那座豪宅的宏伟气派。这是一座三层楼的传统石砌建筑，拥有装饰华丽的石柱阳台和倾斜的红砖屋顶。最引人注目的是一座气派的分叉楼梯，通往宽敞的露台。视频中，家人和宾客们正在翩翩起舞。

这一切都已不复存在，在5月9日以色列的空袭中被摧毁。名义上，双方达成了停火协议，但实际上，那段时间以色列军队持续发动军事进攻，真主党也发射火箭弹。她姐姐在空袭后拍摄的照片显示了炮弹的轨迹，炮弹穿透了一层又一层的建筑，留下一个被厚厚一层白色粉尘覆盖的巨大窟窿。

巧合的是，就在罢工发生前三天，她的父母和妹妹离开了家，因为她母亲睡不着觉。“我妈妈再也受不了无人机、飞机以及所有那些刺耳的噪音了，”她说。他们是从邻居那里得知罢工的消息的。

莫格尼是众多向CNN表示其家园在以色列与真主党战争中被毁的美国公民之一。以色列国防军（IDF）称，真主党的袭击目标是敌方阵地。今年3月，在美以联军空袭伊朗后，真主党向以色列发射火箭弹，导致双方冲突重燃。根据联合国开发计划署（UNDP）6月发布的一份评估报告，自那时起，已有近18000所房屋被毁。

即使在四月份名义上的停火生效后，以色列军队仍然深入黎巴嫩境内。大多数美国公民现在已经离开黎巴嫩南部；少数留下来的人是为了工作、保护他们的生意，或者仅仅是因为他们对这片土地有感情。例如，莫格尼的岳母仍然住在那里，她的房子虽然墙壁受损、窗户破碎，但仍然屹立不倒，这都是附近轰炸造成的。

安瓦尔·盖达 (Anwar Ghaida) 也是一位美国企业主，他的房产曾两次遭到袭击——一次是在 2024 年，另一次是在今年早些时候。

第一次袭击事件曾轰动一时。袭击造成三名记者丧生，他们当时正在盖达位于哈斯巴亚村的一栋出租别墅里睡觉。盖达将别墅和一处婚礼场地一起出租。盖达认为这次袭击是蓄意的。这三名记者分别来自真主党旗下的新闻频道“灯塔电视台”（Al Manar）和亲伊朗的新闻网络“广场电视台”（Al Mayadeen）。他们是当时住在别墅里的18名记者中的一部分，这些记者来自不同的新闻机构，他们当时正在报道2024年9月至11月间爆发的以色列与真主党之间的冲突。

盖达认为，第二次以色列人可能犯了个错误。“他们袭击了婚礼场地，主要是厨房区域，但当时里面没人，”他谈到那次深夜袭击时说道。尽管如此，破坏仍然造成了严重的后果。“我的生意彻底破产了。我以前能承办500人的婚礼，现在我所有的厨房设备和家具都没了。”

今年3月25日第二次袭击发生时，他的生意已经每况愈下。随着冲突愈演愈烈，“没人结婚”，旅馆也不再受记者欢迎。“他们上网看到旅馆被炸毁的消息后，我想他们在预订前都会三思。”他说。

他的两个孩子住在美国，但他不忍心和他们团聚。“我哥哥和他的孩子们在这里，我妈妈，我妹妹……我不能离开他们，”这位60岁的老人在哈斯巴亚的家中接受CNN电话采访时说道。再说，他觉得自己这个年纪也重新开始了。

尽管已经停火，盖达晚上还是能听到以色列无人机在头顶盘旋。“昨晚情况很糟糕，”他说，“你能听到不同城镇的炮击声和巨大的爆炸声。”

黎巴嫩裔美国人普遍认为，黎巴嫩南部的局势从未如此糟糕。有些人经历了2006年的冲突，有些人则记得以色列上次占领黎巴嫩南部（1982年至2000年）的情景。他们的家园在那些岁月中幸存了下来。

但这一次，以色列在南部采取了更加激进的策略，士兵们在占领领土的过程中将整个村庄夷为平地。

今年春天，CNN对卫星图像的分析显示，以色列军队摧毁了包括清真寺、药店、咖啡馆和汽车修理店在内的民用建筑。居民拍摄的视频显示，以色列军队正在进行有控制的爆破拆除，而卫星图像则揭示了以色列推土机和挖掘机拆除房屋的模式。

破坏活动发生在以色列划定的所谓“黄线”之后，这条黄线划定了黎巴嫩境内一条宽约6英里的狭长地带，目前已被以色列军队占领，大致覆盖了以色列在2000年之前占领的土地。数十个村庄的居民被迫流离失所。

以色列国防部长辩称，拆毁房屋是消除真主党威胁的战略决策。上周，联合国人权事务高级专员沃尔克·图尔克呼吁以色列结束占领并停止拆毁房屋。

在美国，位于密歇根州迪尔伯恩的阿拉伯裔美国公民权利联盟（ACRL）正准备代表在冲突中失去家园和财产的美国公民对美国政府提起民事诉讼。ACRL主席兼首席原告纳赛尔·贝敦表示：“美国政府有义务保护海外的美国公民和财产。很多（在黎巴嫩南部）属于美国人的房屋都是用我们纳税人的钱被毁的。所以，必须有人为此负责。”

该诉讼寻求经济赔偿，并希望国会停止对参与破坏活动的以色列军事单位的美国援助。

拉米兹·达拉/阿纳多卢/盖蒂图片社

这起诉讼背后大约有 180 个家庭，他们与黎巴嫩的联系可以追溯到几代人之前，比如 70 岁的穆罕默德·法耶德·雷达，他在华尔街的纽约银行工作多年后，回到了他的祖籍国。

“我在美国的生活还不错，但我很想家。所以我退休了，带着养老金回国，用当地的砖石给自己盖了一栋漂亮的房子，”雷达说。

他所在的亚伦村是一个基督教徒和穆斯林混居的村庄，位于以色列边境，目前被以色列军队占领。黎巴嫩人被禁止进入。由于无人能从家乡带来消息，雷达和许多难民一样，只能通过卫星图像关注自己的财产状况。

“第一次或第二次停火之后，他们就决定拆毁房子，”他说。“他们开始了有条不紊的拆毁行动。他们夷平了整个城镇。现在只剩下两三栋房子，他们可能用作据点，但他们把所有房子都摧毁了。看起来他们是想留在那里。”

雷达后来搬去和孩子们一起住在佛罗里达州的温特斯普林斯。“就连墓地，我母亲的遗骸……都让人感到恐惧，太可怕了，”雷达在电话里说道。

“这次情况大不相同，”吉哈德·萨姆哈特证实道。他是一名美国陆军退伍老兵，逃离了位于黄线另一侧的艾纳塔村。“黎巴嫩南部曾多次被占领，”他说，“但我家乡的黎巴嫩人在（之前的）占领期间一直坚守在那里。”

萨姆哈特出生于洛杉矶，并在那里长大。他曾在美国陆军第一骑兵师服役，之后移居黎巴嫩，在联合国从事排雷和未爆弹药清除工作超过15年。随后，他创办了颇受欢迎的音乐场所“贝鲁特电台”，经营了九年，直到2020年贝鲁特港口爆炸后将其关闭。

战争爆发后，他带着妻子、刚出生的孩子、岳母和他们的狗移居美国。

他们远远地看着灾难蔓延到他们的村庄。“有一天，我还能看到我的房子，它还屹立在那里，还在，”他解释说。“但一周后，我又看到了一张村庄的卫星图像，房子却不见了，只剩下一片尘土。”