Source International, Amel Italia and Amel Association International are publishing the results of the first pilot monitoring campaign conducted under the Turabna – Janoub Soil Monitoring project in the districts of Nabatieh and Marjaayoun in South Lebanon
25 May 2026 – Almost two years after the start of the military escalation in South Lebanon, Source International, Amel Italia and Amel Association International are publishing the technical report Legacy of conflict in South Lebanon’s soils, which presents the results of the first soil monitoring campaign carried out as part of the Turabna – Janoub Soil Monitoring project.
The campaign took place in August 2025 in the Nabatieh Governorate, one of the areas most heavily affected by the attacks that began in October 2023. More than 8,500 attacks were recorded in the region, including shelling, airstrikes and 247 suspected incidents involving the use of white phosphorus up to November 2024; the conflict caused almost 4,000 deaths and displaced more than 1.2 million people. Military operations also had major consequences for local ecosystems, with more than 2,200 hectares of forests and agricultural land burned.
The project stems from concerns raised by farmers, residents and local communities about the long-term effects of the war on soil quality, food security and agricultural productivity.
In the absence of specific national soil quality standards, the report compares the results of the 2025 campaign with historical samples collected in the same area in 2001 and with international reference values. The monitoring campaign included field soil sampling and laboratory analysis across multiple affected locations using internationally recognized environmental assessment methodologies. Its aim is to provide an initial independent scientific baseline to assess whether, and to what extent, the conflict has left a chemical trace in the soils of South Lebanon.
The analyses focused on some of the main contaminants associated with conflict settings: heavy metals linked to the use of ammunition and explosions; indirect indicators of white phosphorus use, including total phosphorus and soil pH; and uranium, used as a proxy to check for possible signals compatible with the use of depleted uranium.
The most significant finding of the report concerns the increase in heavy metals directly associated with the use of weapons and ammunition. Between 2001 and 2025, lead, antimony, copper and zinc increased in a statistically significant way in the soils sampled in the districts of Marjaayoun and Nabatieh: four elements considered in the scientific literature to be typical fingerprints of military activities, as they are found in bullets, cartridge cases, ordnance fragments, shrapnel and other war-related materials.
The average increase observed at regional scale is generally moderate, but the signal is clear: compared with the historical samples from 2001, median concentrations increased by 1.5 times for lead, 3.6 times for antimony, 2.5 times for copper and 2.6 times for zinc. In sites that can be directly compared between 2001 and 2025, the increases are even more pronounced, with average ratios of 4.0 for lead, 4.6 for antimony, 4.4 for copper and 5.3 for zinc.
The most concerning picture concerns specific contamination hotspots, where concentrations clearly exceed both historical values and international reference values. The clearest case was detected in Houla, in the Marjaayoun district, one of the most devastated villages visited during the campaign: at this site, antimony was about 500 times higher than the 2001 median, while lead exceeded the German precautionary value. Other hotspots were identified near bombed homes, with elevated concentrations of lead, copper, zinc and antimony.
The report therefore describes contamination at two levels: on the one hand, a widespread deterioration in soil quality across the area studied; on the other, localized sites with much higher concentrations, requiring targeted investigation and priority attention. This pattern is consistent with observations from other post-conflict contexts, where explosions, dust, metal fragments and ammunition residues contribute to soil contamination over time.
Among the elements detected, lead is one of the main concerns because of its toxicity and environmental persistence. Arsenic and cadmium, which were also found to be higher in 2025 than in 2001, require attention because of their potential impacts on human health and ecosystems.
These findings show that the environmental impacts of war do not end when hostilities cease: they can remain in soils, agricultural land and the places where communities try to return to live and work. For this reason, the report underlines the need to continue monitoring, deepen the analyses at the most contaminated sites and integrate environmental assessments into post-conflict reconstruction processes.
Flaviano Bianchini, Director of Source International and scientific coordinator of the project
The fundamental principle of humanitarian law, the branch of international law that regulates war, is very simple. Once a war is over, everything should return to the way it was before, and the civilian population should be able to go back to their lives. But how is that possible if the environment where people lived has been devastated? If the fields can no longer be cultivated because of pollution? If water sources are polluted or destroyed?
This is what we are witnessing in South Lebanon today. The hostilities have ended and more than one million people have been told to return to their lands and cultivate their fields. But those fields are no longer cultivable or liveable. The environmental consequences of contamination may continue for decades, affecting agricultural land, public health and the long-term recovery of communities in South Lebanon.
Roberto Renino, President of Amel Italia and Project Coordinator
What we saw in the villages of South Lebanon is the indiscriminate violence that characterizes Israeli settler colonialism. Entire villages destroyed, countryside devastated, trees uprooted and infrastructure sabotaged. As with Israel’s other open fronts, the Lebanese front was also characterized by the use of illegal incendiary munitions such as white phosphorus, with the clear intention of creating scorched earth and making entire areas unliveable, collectively targeting the civilian population and everything that belongs to it.
Beyond the devastating immediate effects and forced displacement, the systematic destruction of the ecosystem causes less visible long-term damage: in an area already highly exposed to the effects of climate change, soil contamination is another factor putting the food security and food sovereignty of an entire population at risk. Recognizing responsibility for the war crimes committed by Israel against the population and against the Lebanese ecosystem remains an obligation neglected by the international community, despite all available evidence.
Hoda Khatoun, Project Coordinator for Amel Lebanon
“The use of Internationally prohibited material confirmed through the increase of heavy metals directly associated with warefare concentration leading to and Ecocide. The long term is very worrying for health concerns, that increased respiratory issue and an observed increase in cancer patients, in addition to at least 75% of farmers who lost their livelihood for years forward. It is a catastrophic situation”
The full report can be read at the following link: Legacy of conflict in South Lebanon’s soils 2026.
Photographs taken during the August 2025 campaign can be downloaded at the following link(credits: Source International and Amel Italia).
Source International is a non-profit organization founded in Italy in 2012 to support communities affected by industrial and extractive pollution through independent scientific evidence. It works at the request of communities, providing technical and scientific support, legal analysis and training, with the aim of turning data into concrete change: sanctions, reforms, remediation and official recognition of environmental and health emergencies.
Amel Italia is a non-profit association based in Italy, working at the intersection of environmental justice, climate action and humanitarian response. The organization adopts a data-driven, community-centred approach, providing individuals and groups with the tools and training they need to engage directly in climate action. Its work is grounded in the principles of decoloniality, innovation and grassroots mobilization.
Amel is a non-governmental and non-confessional association founded in 1979 by Dr Kamel Mohanna and a group of doctors, journalists and activists in response to the atrocities of the Lebanese Civil War and the aggressions in South Lebanon. For more than 45 years, and with over 1,500 staff members, Amel has operated through 40 centres, 10 mobile medical units, 2 mobile education units and 2 protection units in Lebanon’s most marginalized regions.
Source International: Flaviano Bianchini flaviano@source-international.org +39 328 486 1863
Amel Italia: Roberto Renino presidente@amelitalia.org +39 333 982 5924
Amel Association International: Hoda Khatoun livelihood@amel.org +961 371 3524
