'Crazy days': Displaced Israelis brace for war with Hezbollah

 

Menahem Sharon fled his home in northern Israel nearly a year ago when Lebanon's Hezbollah began launching cross-border strikes after the outbreak of war in Gaza.

With those clashes now intensifying as Israel ramps up military operations against the Iran-backed group, the 29-year-old teacher fears his ordeal is far from over.

"I think it could be another year for us to get back," Sharon told AFP.

"Maybe now we will go to war, but after we could get back to our houses."

Hezbollah said it began attacking Israel on October 8 last year in solidarity with its ally Hamas, whose unprecedented attack on southern Israel the previous day triggered a retaliatory Israeli military campaign that is ongoing.

Israel and Hezbollah were locked in near-daily exchanges of fire for nearly a year.

But on Monday, Israel launched devastating strikes across Lebanon's south and east, killing more than 550 people according to the Lebanese health ministry -- the deadliest single-day toll since the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

The attacks came after coordinated explosions of communication devices in Lebanon killed 39 people and wounded thousands on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.

Those were followed by a deadly strike on Friday on south Beirut, with leading Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil among the dead.

Sharon is among more than 60,000 Israelis who were evacuated from the north and remain displaced around the country, according to official data.

From his temporary home in Yokneam Illit, Sharon told AFP he misses swimming in the rivers near his hometown of Kiryat Shmona close to the Lebanon border, to say nothing of the old rhythms of his work and social life.

Uncertainty

Since early September, calls to return displaced Israelis to their homes have grown louder, and this month Israel announced it was shifting its war objectives to focus on the north.

"We have a task here that is a task that has not been completed, and this task is to change the security situation and return the residents to their homes," Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops on September 10.

The previous day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel cannot "tolerate attacks on its citizens" and that he was determined to return northern residents safely.

The army has said its aerial campaign against Hezbollah, dubbed "Operation Northern Arrows", will continue, leaving Israelis like Sharon in a state of uncertainty.

The violence "could end in a month, and it could end in eight months, and it could be another two years, you can't know what the outcome will be", he said.

That has not stopped him from plotting his return and contemplating the work that will be necessary to make the area once again habitable for him and his neighbours, from repairing damaged infrastructure to ridding abandoned houses of cockroaches and rats.

'Depressing'

Didi, a yoga and drama teacher displaced from kibbutz Adamit on the border with Lebanon, is torn between her desire to go home and dread at seeing how life has changed in northern Israel.

"I'm really not scared at all, but it can be depressing to be waiting," said the 44-year-old, who asked to be identified only by her first name.

"It will never be the same, like it was, in Israel."

Now living in Klil, about 20 kilometres south of kibbutz Adamit, she has come to think war is inevitable.

"Even if it's sad, it's still a good thing that Israel is fighting this war, and this has to be done anyway," she said.

The sounds of rockets being intercepted by Israel's missile defence systems and planes buzzing overhead have deepened apprehension across the north.

Ido Reuven, also displaced from Kiryat Shmona, had sought shelter in the village of Givat Avni, which was struck by Hezbollah fire on Monday.

"It seems that we're going to have crazy days ahead of us, but we hope for the best," said Reuven, who has been woken up by explosions every hour in recent nights.

"It's like a rollercoaster of thoughts every day."