Residents of southern Lebanon gather to watch Israeli drones drop explosives on their village

HANNIYEH, Lebanon (AP) — A group of men and children gathered Friday at a vantage point overlooking their village in southern Lebanon, watching from a distance as Israeli drones descended, carrying boxes laden with explosives to be dropped on houses.

It has become a daily ritual for residents of Mansouri, who fled the village weeks ago and now are watching its destruction from the neighboring village of Hanniyeh.

Active fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has simmered down since they entered into a truce in June, but the Israeli military now occupies large swaths of southern Lebanon, where it regularly carries out controlled demolitions.

Massive clouds of smoke and dust rise periodically from Mansouri, as the men watching debate which neighbor's house has been destroyed this time and look for signs of their own. Early Friday, the Israeli military detonated the village's public school, Lebanese state media reported.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the demolitions.

Some displaced residents blame the Lebanese government along with Israel, saying that authorities abandoned the village.

Ali Hussein Ghanem, a tobacco farmer from Mansouri, is staying with relatives in Hanniyeh along with his wife and children.

“This is something that should never happen,” he said, watching the smoke rise over his village from a distance. “Isn’t the state supposed to protect our town rather than hand it over to Israel?”

Wissam Khashabi, a beekeeper, also from Mansouri, agreed.

“We are seeing our land being destroyed,” he said. “We have lost our property, our orchards, and all our livelihoods. The state is not really doing anything.”

On Thursday, Israeli officials said they had blown up Hezbollah tunnel networks under the strategic Ali Taher ridge near the town of Nabatiyeh, in a different part of southern Lebanon. The force of the blasts caused the earth to shake in surrounding areas.

The Israeli military said the ridge contained extensive underground military infrastructure built by Hezbollah. It had been the site of clashes between Israeli forces and the militant group in recent weeks, before Israel announced it had taken “operational control” of it.

Many residents of Mansouri fled when the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began in March, but returned after the truce in June — only to flee again when the Israeli military issued a call to evacuate the village last month and began striking it again.

Israel said at the time that it was responding to ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. But it’s not clear why it has been demolishing the village since then.

Some of the displaced were taken in by relatives, while others are staying in school shelters in the nearby city of Tyre. At the height of the war, some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon. The ceasefire has allowed most of them to return home, but more than 300,000 remain displaced.

With negotiations between Israel and Lebanon — and between the U.S. and Iran — stalled, there is no political solution in sight that would allow them to go home.

The latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when the militant group fired rockets across the border two days after Israel and the U.S. launched a war on Iran.

The Lebanese government and Israel reached a framework agreement in June stating Israel will withdraw from Lebanon as Hezbollah is disarmed, but there has been little movement on implementing it.

Lebanese and Israeli officials are expected to meet for another round of talks in Rome later this month.

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Associated Press writer Abby Sewell contributed from Beirut.

Smoke billows from an Israeli-controlled detonation in the village of Mansouri, as is seen from Hanniyeh village, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People from Mansouri record the smoke billowing from an Israeli-controlled detonation destroying their village, as seen from Hanniyeh village, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

An Israeli drone carries a box of explosives to be dropped on houses in Mansouri village for detonation, as seen from Hanniyeh village, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke billow from an Israeli-controlled detonation in the village of Mansouri, as is seen from Hanniyeh village, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People from Mansouri watch smoke billow from an Israeli-controlled detonation destroying their village, as seen from Hanniyeh village, southern Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.

Friday's milestone anniversary brings memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims' names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.

For others it's an occasion for private reflection — or, in many schools, education — about the attack that unfolded in a single morning but left nearly 3,000 dead and a decadeslong trail of aftermath, from personal grief to far-flung wars.

Police Officer Casey Kloepfer plans to spend time Friday at the Brooklyn station house where his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, reported to work that day before being called to the World Trade Center. He didn't make it home.

Casey Kloepfer was only 4, but he grew up hearing about his father's affinity for helping people and for a job that enabled him to do so. He became an officer this past June.

“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can,” he said by phone this week. The 29-year-old wears his father’s badge number and even has joined the New York Police Department lacrosse team, which his dad founded.

On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The impacts brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers — icons of U.S. economic power, and among the tallest buildings on Earth — and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the U.S. military's fortress-like headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane also was headed for the nation's capital, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.

“In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before” and after, President Donald Trump said at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week. The Republican, who was in his native New York on Sept. 11 and has often recounted his memories, plans to attend the Pentagon's anniversary ceremony Friday.

Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on 9/11, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and current Vice President JD Vance convened for the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, where the hourslong reading of all the victims' names began with the tolling of a bell and a moment of silence. Other administration officials headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.

Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, from beams of light projecting from New Hampshire's Mount Washington to a stair climb at Mississippi State University's football stadium to a ceremony at Honolulu's 9/11 memorial.

Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the New York commemoration, where victims' relatives read aloud the long list of names, punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline. A crowd of 9/11 family members watched, many holding aloft photos of loved ones who perished a quarter-century ago.

For the first time, this year's ceremony will add a silent moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.

It's a reminder of how the attacks' long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the U.S. and beyond.

The U.S.-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter Washington's longest war — and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons. The U.S. found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.

The attacks changed U.S. air travel, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations, and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom. The Department of Homeland Security, many state anti-terrorism laws and billions of dollars in state and local counterterrorism funding all are post-9/11 creations.

So, too, is the culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan “ if you see something, say something.”

Sept. 11 generated a wave of patriotism that propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments, police forces or other public agencies. But amid the national unity that many remember, the attacks also fanned mistrust, prejudice and hate crimes directed at Muslims.

In the quarter-century since, Muslim Americans have played a growing role in public life from statehouses to Congress to New York City Hall, where Zohran Mamdani is the city's first Muslim mayor. Yet he faced some criticism for attending the anniversary ceremony at ground zero, something his predecessors have done for years.

Some complaints came from Republican ex-Gov. George Pataki and 9/11 victims’ relatives, who cited among other things past remarks that some of Mamdani's political associates have made about the attacks. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, also inveighed against Mamdani attending, though the two shook hands Friday as they and other officials awaited the start of the observance.

Mamdani, a Democrat, said earlier this week that he loves the city and country and wants the anniversary to focus on victims' families, first responders and New Yorkers who helped one another after the attacks, which he called a “horrific act of terror.” The 34-year-old mayor was an elementary school student in New York on 9/11.

Sept. 11 isn't a federal holiday, but Congress has designated it both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“One appropriate way to remember is by serving,” says Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk and then co-founded the volunteer organization 9/11 Day with friend David Paine. The group helps people find meal-packing and other volunteer opportunities and this year arranged for dozens of Times Square billboards to pause their advertising at 9:11 a.m. Friday.

Instead, they will simply display the time.

People listen to the U.S. national anthem at the memorial on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, Pool)

People join their hands as they pray for Father Mychal Judge during a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Jeenah Moon, Pool Photo via AP)

A law enforcement officer stands during a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Jeenah Moon, Pool Photo via AP)

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, right, passes former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani ahead of a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Barry Williams /The Daily News via AP, Pool)

Service members unfurl a flag on the 25th anniversary over the portion of the Pentagon's west side that was struck by an airliner hijacked by terrorist, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Arlington Va. (AP Photo/John McDonnell

Rosanne Spirito, 49, and daughters Sabrina, 22, and Amanda, 20, who lost their sister Catherine Lisa LoGuidice, stand at a reflecting pool on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, Pool)

Service members unfurl a flag on the 25th anniversary over the portion of the Pentagon's west side that was struck by an airliner hijacked by terrorist, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Arlington Va. (AP Photo/John McDonnell

Members of the New York Fire Department and New York Police Department rehearse ahead of memorial observances on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, at the site of the World Trade Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026 in New York.

Members of New York Police Department carry a US flag ahead of memorial observances on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, at the site of the World Trade Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026 in New York. (Olga Fedorova/Pool Photo via AP)

Phillip Flood, 48, watches as the Tribute in Light is tested over the skyline of lower Manhattan, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Jersey City, NJ. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, center, speaks to FDNY commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, right, during a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Members of the FDNY march with flags during a memorial to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in the Staten Island borough of New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

An American flag flies, with the lower Manhattan skyline in background, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Jersey City, NJ. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)