Israeli occupation forces have turned a Lebanese home into a polling station for Israel's upcoming parliamentary elections, bringing the country's electoral process onto occupied southern Lebanese territory as its military continues to seize land and destroy villages.
Footage filmed from a distance and circulated by Lebanese media appears to show Israeli soldiers using a house in the village of Zawtar al-Sharqiya as a polling station, transforming civilian property in an occupied Lebanese village into a voting site for the very forces occupying it.
Israeli media have also reported that soldiers deployed in occupied Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian territories began casting their ballots on Wednesday ahead of Israel's 27 October election.
Lebanese media reported that Israeli soldiers were voting at military positions stretching from Naqoura to Zawtar al-Sharqiya, deepening the controversy over Israel's use of occupied Lebanese territory for its domestic political process.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported ealier this month that the military was preparing more than 800 polling stations, including sites in occupied Gaza, occupied Lebanon and occpued Syria, as thousands of Israeli soldiers remain deployed beyond the country's borders.
Around 850 polling stations had been established, including mobile voting facilities serving Israeli forces stationed at 40 military outposts in Gaza, numerous positions in Lebanon and nine outposts in Syria, according to Israeli media reports.
The military has deployed approximately 3,000 soldiers to administer the voting process, which began on Wednesday and will continue until election day.
"Our mission is to enable all IDF service members to exercise their democratic right to a secret ballot, including during operational activities and combat beyond the border," Israeli Colonel Vered Ben Yehuda, who oversees the military's election preparations, told the Times of Israel.
The Israeli military's invocation of democratic rights stands in stark contrast to the reality in southern Lebanon, where occupation forces are using seized territory to hold their own elections while Lebanese tens of hundreds of thousands of civilians remain displaced from their homes.
Meanwhile, Lebanon itself has been forced to postpone its parliamentary elections amid the devastation and disruption caused by Israel's war.
Occupation and destruction of Lebanese homes
Israel has maintained a military presence in parts of southern Lebanon since its October 2024 invasion. Since March this year, it has significantly expanded its occupation, establishing a so-called security zone while destroying dozens of Lebanese towns and villages.
The military campaign has left large areas devastated, with Lebanese residents displaced from their communities and prevented from returning to their homes.
Against this backdrop, the apparent use of a Lebanese house for an Israeli election illustrates how occupation forces are treating territory belonging to another country as an extension of their own military infrastructure.
Numerous videos have surfaced showing Israeli troops occupying and destroying Lebanese civilian property, often filmed by the soldiers themselves.
In one video that went viral on Tuesday, Israeli soldiers were seen boasting as they rigged a house with explosives at an undisclosed location in southern Lebanon.
Other footage has repeatedly shown entire neighbourhoods being demolished, with Israeli forces systematically reducing residential areas to rubble.
The reported use of a Lebanese home as a polling station comes as Israeli officials continue to insist that their forces will remain in occupied southern Lebanon, despite repeated demands from Beirut for their withdrawal.
Israeli elections extend into occupied Arab territories
The voting arrangements are not limited to Lebanon, with Israeli soldiers also casting ballots at military positions in occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories.
In Syria, Israeli forces crossed the armistice line and seized additional territory in the country's southwest, including the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, immediately after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024.
Israel has also occupied Syria's Golan Heights since 1967, with its annexation of the territory rejected under international law.
In Gaza, Israeli forces currently occupy close to 70 percent of the territory following three years of genocidal warfare that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and devastated entire cities and neighbourhoods.
The Israeli military has established polling arrangements at 40 outposts inside Gaza, allowing soldiers involved in the occupation to participate in Israel's elections from within the devastated Palestinian enclave.
The West Bank has meanwhile remained under Israeli occupation since 1967, with illegal settlement construction accelerating alongside increasingly frequent and violent settler attacks against Palestinian communities.
Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that their forces will remain in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, citing security threats to justify their continued military presence.
Beirut and Damascus have demanded that Israel withdraw its forces from their territories, maintaining that they seek no further conflict.