Israeli soldiers release photo in front of Ramieh, southern Lebanon

A photo showing Israeli soldiers posing proudly in front of the municipal building in the border village of Ramieh (Bint Jbeil district) circulated on social media Wednesday morning, as the Israeli army continues its communication surrounding its ground operations in southern Lebanon. A reverse image search showed no previous occurrences of this photo before Tuesday. Older photos taken in front of this building suggest it indeed corresponds to the municipal building of Ramieh.

This post comes a week after an Israeli flag was raised at the entrance to the village of Maroun al-Ras, also in the Bint Jbeil district. A similar scene was filmed at a Lebanese army position near Labbouneh (Sour district), located 300 meters inside Lebanese territory.

On Monday, the Israeli army organized a media tour with several Western journalists invited to film ground operations, showing Israeli soldiers moving freely in several villages in southern Lebanon, as well as tunnels presented as those used by Hezbollah.

Relying on footage broadcast by the American channel Fox News, internet users were able to geolocate one of these sequences and confirm that it was filmed in Blida (Bint Jbeil district).

This communication effort was strongly condemned by several Lebanese institutions and Hezbollah, calling for sanctions against the British media outlet. Six employees of its Arabic channel in Beirut announced their resignation on Monday in protest against the publication of a report by their English-language counterparts on this occasion.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army claimed to have struck "140 Hezbollah targets" on Tuesday alone, bringing the total to nearly 340 artillery or airstrikes over the past 36 hours in the border zone of southern Lebanon.

However, Hezbollah maintains that it has managed to respond on the ground. Twenty-four hours ago, the party claimed to have successfully shot down an Israeli drone, though this has not been confirmed.