Ben-Gurion Airport remained far from normal despite cease-fires with Iran and Lebanon, with only a handful of foreign airlines back in limited service at Israel's primary international gateway while the presence of U.S. military aircraft was gradually going down. The same regional pause in fighting did not stop the IDF from continuing the systematic destruction of villages in southern Lebanon during a cease-fire, with military commanders telling Haaretz that civilian homes, public buildings and schools were being demolished as part of a broader policy to "clear the area."
Who Gets the Cease-Fire, Who Gets the Damage
At Ben-Gurion Airport, the signs of military power were still visible even as the airspace and travel network tried to inch back toward routine. In a Haaretz report, the wing of a U.S. military C-135 Stratotanker aircraft cast a large shadow on the tarmac just outside Tel Aviv last week, and under it, an American soldier lay down, catching a short rest. The article said the airport was still far from normal, with only a handful of foreign airlines having resumed operations and those doing so only in a limited manner.
That limited reopening shows who gets to move and who gets stuck when states and militaries decide the terms. The airport, a primary international gateway, was not described as fully restored for ordinary travelers; instead, it remained shaped by the presence and withdrawal of military hardware and the slow return of commercial carriers under conditions set from above.
What the Army Calls "Clearing the Area"
In southern Lebanon, the picture was harsher. Military commanders told Haaretz that civilian homes, public buildings and schools were being demolished as part of a broader policy to "clear the area." The report said the IDF was continuing the systematic destruction of villages during a cease-fire, with contractors and heavy machinery involved.
The language of policy does the usual bureaucratic laundering here: homes, schools and public buildings are reduced to obstacles in a military plan. The source described the destruction as systematic, not accidental, and said it was being carried out while a cease-fire was in place. The report also said the policy was described by sources as modeled on Gaza operations.
That detail matters because it places the destruction inside a recognizable pattern of state violence carried out through contractors, heavy machinery and military command. The people living in those villages are the ones paying for decisions made elsewhere, by commanders and institutions that can call demolition a strategy.
The Machinery Behind the Headlines
The Haaretz airport report and the southern Lebanon report together show a region still organized around military priorities even in the supposed calm of cease-fires. One scene shows an American military aircraft on the tarmac and a soldier resting beneath it. The other shows villages being razed, with civilian infrastructure treated as something to be removed.
Meanwhile, The Times of Israel reported five points of apparent failure in the US-Israel confrontation with Iran as a two-week ceasefire neared. The briefing said the piece focused on five points of apparent failure in the Iran war, including strategic concerns around the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's revised position there.
That framing points to the gap between elite war planning and the reality on the ground. The language of failure is reserved for strategy, confrontation and control, while the costs are borne by people living near airports, in villages, and across the regions turned into chessboards by states and their military apparatuses. The cease-fires did not erase the machinery of domination; they only changed its tempo.