"The work and toil of a lifetime, to see it collapse before your eyes, it hurts a lot," Hamdan, 59, said after looking at the picture of Israeli bulldozers next to his destroyed home.

Photos taken on Wednesday from the Israeli side of the border by an AFP photographer show extensive destruction in two Lebanese border villages, as well as bulldozers and other heavy vehicles demolishing buildings in one village.

AFP was able to geolocate one of the buildings as being in Mais al-Jabal, based on a store sign visible on a building.

Hassan Taha, a member of the Mais al-Jabal municipal council, looked at the photos and confirmed they were of his village.

Hamdan told AFP his first home there was destroyed during the previous round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024.

After a 2024 ceasefire, which saw Israel continue to strike targets in Lebanon, Hamdan rented another house in Mais al-Jabal, using all of his remaining savings.

But a few months later he had to flee the village once again.

"Everything I saved, I invested to set up a new home. And I lost everything a second time," he said.

"The labour of a lifetime, ended in an instant. Sometimes you reach a point you think death is better than this life we live."

- 'They will not return' -

Since the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2023 and 2024, several border villages have suffered extensive destruction, including during the ceasefire period.

Amnesty International said in August that "more than 10,000 structures were heavily damaged or destroyed" between October 2024 and late January 2025.

At the time, the rights group pointed to "the Israeli military's extensive and deliberate destruction of civilian property", much of it after the ceasefire.

Lebanon has accused Israel, which refused to withdraw from five positions in southern Lebanon during the ceasefire, of carrying out a campaign of destruction in these villages and preventing their reconstruction.

After war broke out once more between Hezbollah and Israel on March 2, against the backdrop of the regional war between the United States and Israel and Iran, Lebanese state media have reported Israeli "demolition and blasting" operations in what remains of the border villages.

Israel has said it is creating a "buffer zone" inside Lebanon.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that displaced Lebanese residents would not return to their homes "until security is guaranteed for the residents of the north" of Israel.

Katz also threatened that "all the houses in the villages adjacent to the border in Lebanon will be demolished".

Human Rights Watch, in a letter to Katz last month, expressed its "grave concerns".

Amnesty International also criticised Katz over statements that Israel wants to "accelerate the destruction of bridges and homes in southern Lebanon", arguing that "Israel must not be allowed to violate international law with impunity across the region".

A Lebanese military source told AFP Israeli forces have advanced between five and 10 kilometres (three and six miles) in scattered locations in southern Lebanon as part of their invasion.

- 'Destruction' -

Around half of Mais al-Jabal, especially the eastern side, had been destroyed before the latest war, Taha said.

But AFP photos that Taha reviewed show what he said was fresh destruction, including in the centre of the village.

"We cannot calculate the percentage that's been destroyed right now. There was destruction of about 50%... but based on the images we see, we believe that the destruction may have reached 80%," he said.

The Lebanese authorities do not have a public estimate of the current extent of the destruction.

The World Bank estimated the cost of reconstruction after the last war at about $11 billion, a process that had largely not begun when the new war erupted.

Khalil Hamdan has also lost an ancient olive grove inherited from his ancestors.

"I consider myself wronged," he told AFP.

"I am not affiliated with any party and have nothing to do with political groups. I'm a citizen who loves his state and wants it to be on the ground and to protect me.

"Three years with no work and constant displacement from one place to another -- we can no longer bear it."