Elijah Magnier, a specialist in Middle East regional dynamics and senior political risk analyst, has spoken to Al Jazeera about Israel’s war on Lebanon, and how Israel is applying the “Rafah doctrine” — named after the destroyed city in southern Gaza — to Lebanon.

“This is what the Israeli Defence Minister Israeli Katz told us, that in Lebanon, they will apply the “Rafah doctrine”, which means flattening everything,” Magnier told Al Jazeera.

“Destroying homes, schools, universities, hospitals. Everything that they can see and leave nothing for the people,” he said.

The focus is to destroy so completely that local Lebanese people no longer “know the previous topography of the land” and “not allow anyone to return”.