Sarah Benhamo, the only Israeli in town near the Lebanon border, feels inevitable: a case study of the war between Israel and Hezbollah

Sarah Benhamo is trying to have the floors in her apartment cleaned. They’re normally white, but right now they’re black with soot from all the forest fires that have been burning nearby.

The war between Israel and Hezbollah started after the start of the war in Gaza last year, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel and took some 240 hostages. 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. The Israeli military has been preparing for such a conflict, and tens of thousands of residents were ordered by the government to evacuate from border towns like Kiryat Shmona last October. Many have been living at hotels or with their family 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’s standing outside her apartment building, arms filled with groceries. She will check on the apartment, cook dinner for her family and then bring the food back to the hotel they are all living in further south.

Source: For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable

Sirens, sirens and bomb shelters in the neighborhood of a Gazan neighborhood: Israelis near the Lebanon border, war feels inevitable

There are usually 10 or more explosions a day, she says. “Sometimes a siren sounds before, and sometimes it doesn’t sound at all. It is really frightening.

She points to the roof of the house, which is covered in a tarp. A rocket crashed into it just last month. She was thrown across the room by the explosion in her kitchen. She was so afraid after recovering that she ran to her car and drove away without wearing her seat belt.

The neighborhood is full of three-story apartment buildings, but it is eerily quiet. There are very few cars. Several buildings have rocket damage. There’s a bomb shelter on every street. Ben Hamo says the only people still living here are mostly elderly or disabled.

Source: For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable

Israelis at the border: “It feels like war is inevitable” — Mayor Avichai Stern’s office in Kiryat Shmona, Lebanon

Palestinians were forced to leave Kiryat Shmona after it became Israel’s creation in 1948, which was the beginning of the Second World War. The families who are still living in Lebanon want to come back someday.

Except for a small restaurant that is still open, downtown is completely shut down. A restaurant next to it is covered in metal and ash, after a direct hit from a rocket.

Mayor Avichai Stern is taking meetings in the bomb shelter deep below the town’s city hall. There have been too many sirens today. He’s used to this setup by now, though, after months of fighting. These days he says this is his office.

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 says his goal is for people to be able to return before the new school year starts in September.

“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 do not want war. We did not want war in Gaza either, but I think today we all understand that the question is not whether there will be war, but whether the war will be now or later,” he says.

Source: For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable

Naharriya – a safe room at the border of the seaside city of Kiryat Shmona – Israel near the Lebanon border

Roughly 40 miles west of Kiryat Shmona is the seaside city of Naharriya. Hills on either side of the highway occasionally billow with smoke, due to the fires on the other side. The air smells like campfire.

Nahariya has yet to be evacuated. Many of the 75,000 residents still live here – including Yaffa and Moshe Nahon. The safe room in their home is state-of-the-art.

It has an air purification system, bulletproof door, and is able to protect itself against rocket attacks. The whole thing costs $100,000, but they say it is worth it if it makes their three kids and three grandkids feel safe.

They say their friends and neighbors have been building a room like this in the last few months, as a response to the events in the south and increased rocket fire up here. There’s such high demand it’s almost impossible to find a contractor.

The couple both grew up in the north, and have lived here all their lives, through two major wars with Lebanon – first in 1978 and again, against Hezbollah, in 2006. They say people up here understand that war, as terrible as it is, brings long-lasting calm.

“Once there’s a war, afterward there will be quiet, and not just a little of it,” Yaffa says, remembering the nearly 18 years of relative peace after 2006. I think the people should live in peace already.

Source: For Israelis near the Lebanon border, war with Hezbollah feels inevitable

The Israeli We Know Is Goin’, And Today’s Israel Is In Existential Danger: How the Far-Right Israelis Live, And What They Are Doing

In the early summer, Nahariya’s walkway would usually be filled with people. A few still walk along, enjoying the breeze. One man walks a small dog. A couple sits at the sunset.

The extremists in Netanyahu’s coalition are looking at their next moves for power, as his emergency war cabinet has fallen apart because of the lack of a plan for ending the war and safely withdrawing from Gaza.

Iran has used its allies and proxies to put Israel into a vice grip, and it is now up against a regional superpower, Israel. Israel has no answer at the moment. It is in dire danger of a war on several fronts including Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank, as well as with a new twist: Hezbollah in Lebanon, unlike Hamas, is armed with precision missiles that could destroy vast swaths of Israel’s infrastructure.

The Israel we know is gone, was my headline when I wrote a column on November 4, 2022, a day after the far-right Israelis won the election. It was intended to be a way of saying how radical this coalition is. Many people disagreed. I believe events have proved them wrong — and the situation is now even worse: The Israel we knew is gone, and today’s Israel is in existential danger.