Ben Hamo in Kiryat Shmona, Israel: Evacuating a Border Town for Israelis near the Lebanon Border and War Feels Imminent
KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel — Sarah Ben Hamo has been trying to get the floors of her apartment clean for weeks. Normally white, they are black because of the forest fires that have been burning nearby.
Israel and Hezbollah have been in a low-grade war since the Iranian-backed group fired at Israel in a show of solidarity with Hamas after the beginning of the war in Gaza last October. The exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel has intensified in recent weeks, and Israelis have been eyeing the possible beginning of a full-out war in the north. Over 100,000 people were ordered to leave Kiryat Shmona, a border town, by the government in October, because the military was preparing for a conflict. Many people have been living at hotels in Israel since then.
Ben Hamo evacuated with her family months ago, but comes back during the weekdays to work her job at the local supermarket. It’s the only one still operating in town, and she needs the money. She is standing outside of her apartment building with groceries. She plans to check on the apartment, cook dinner for her family and then bring the food back to the hotel they’re all living in further south.
Source: For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable
A neighborhood of Israelis near the Lebanon border: There’s a war with Hezbollah feels inevitable, and the bomb shelters in the neighborhood
There are sometimes more than 10 explosions a day. Sometimes a siren sounds, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s really scary.”
She points across the street to a house with a giant hole in the roof, covered by a tarp. She says just last month, a rocket crashed into it. The explosion in her kitchen flung her across the room. She was so afraid that she fled her car and drove away without even wearing her seat belt.
It is an eerily quiet neighborhood, full of three-story apartments. There aren’t many cars. Several buildings have been damaged by rockets. There’s a bomb shelter on every street. The only people living here are elderly or disabled.
Source: For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable
Israelis in Kiryat Shmona: Is war inevitable? Mayor Avichai Stern revisits the town’s once and for all
The Palestinians were forced to abandon the town after the 1948 war and it was renamed Kiryat Shmona. Many of those families still live across the border in Lebanon, hoping to come back someday.
Today, the downtown area is completely shut down, save for one still open shawarma restaurant filled with Israeli soldiers. The restaurant next to it is now a pile of twisted metal and ash, after a direct hit from a rocket a few months ago.
Mayor Avichai Stern is taking meetings in the bomb shelter deep below the town’s city hall. There were too many sirens today. After months of fighting, he is now used to this setup. He says this is practically his office these days.
He explains that most of the 24,000 residents of Kiryat Shmona are now spread between 460 different locations in Israel, with four hubs where makeshift schools have been set up. He wants to have people able to return before the new school year starts.
“For residents to be able to return here, we need to remove the threat we have today from the north,” Mayor Stern says, referring to Hezbollah. “Especially after what we saw in the south [in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack], we cannot return here like sheep to the slaughter and wait for them to overrun us as they did there.”
We don’t want war. We did not want war in Gaza, but now that we are aware, we must decide if the war will be now or later.
Source: For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable
The Safe Room in Naharriya, a Seaside City Near the Kir Shmona Highway: Peace and War with Lebanon Feels Inevitable
Naharriya is a seaside city roughly 40 miles west of Kir Shmona. On the way there, the hills on either side of the highway occasionally billow with smoke – fires burning from recent rocket hits. The air smells campfire-like.
Nahariya has not been evacuated yet. There are many people who still live here, including Yaffa and Moshe Nahon. The safe room has been installed in their home for 40 years.
It will protect against shrapnel from rockets, has a bulletproof door and an air filtration system in case of chemical attack. The whole thing cost around $100,000, but they say it’s worth it if it means their three kids and three grandkids can still visit and feel safe.
They say many of their friends and neighbors have decided to build this room after seeing what happened in the south a few months back and the increase in rocket fire up here. It can be hard to find a contractor due to the high demand.
The couple have lived here all their lives, and have been involved in two wars with Lebanon, the first in 1978 and the second in 2006 against Hezbollah. The people up here say that war brings long- lasting calm.
After there is a war there will be quiet, as it has after 2006 when there was nearly 18 years of peace. “I think the people here deserve to live in peace already.”
Source: For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable
Israel We Knew Is Gone: Netanyahu’s Last Forthcoming Coalescence with the Hamas and Hezbollah
Nahariya’s walkway is usually filled with people in the early summer. This evening, just a few still stroll along, enjoying the breeze. One man walks a small dog. A young couple sits to take in the sunset.
But Israel is led by a prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has to stay in power to avoid potentially being sent to prison on corruption charges. He sold his soul to join a government led by far right Jewish extremists who want to destroy Hamas in Gaza, and who oppose any partnership with the Palestinian Authority, which has accepted the peace accords.
Israel is up against a regional superpower, Iran, that has managed to put Israel into a vice grip, using its allies and proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Shiite militias in Iraq. Israel does not have a military or diplomatic answer right now. Hezbollah in Lebanon, unlike Hamas, has missiles that could destroy Israel’s infrastructure from its airports to its seaport, which is very dangerous and makes the situation on the other fronts worse.
On Nov. 4, 2022, just after the current far-right Israeli government coalition won election, I wrote a column with this headline: “The Israel We Knew Is Gone.” It was going to be a warning about how radical this coalition is. Many people disagreed. The situation is worse now that the Israel we know and love is gone.