‘We were prepared for Hizbullah rocket fire, but October 7th changed everything’

“Every morning I wake up early and walk around Metula. Then I cry,” says David Azoulay, the mayor of the small Israeli village, which straddles the Lebanese border. “Then I call the evacuees whose homes have been damaged and then I feed the dogs that were left behind.”

Azoulay, along with a small security detachment, is the only civilian left in Metula. The rest of the 2,500 residents were evacuated to hotels in Tiberius soon after the start of the Gaza war almost six months ago, to escape Hizbullah rocket fire.

The border fence is only 150m from the first Metula home, and two Shia villages on hills across the border look down on the village, granting Hizbullah militants an unobstructed line of fire.

Every couple of days a projectile slams into one of the deserted homes: the Russian-made Kornet anti-tank guided missiles have been particularly destructive – 130 of the 600-plus homes, in what was a thriving community based on agriculture and tourism, have been damaged. Some have been destroyed.

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Metula is not alone. The government evacuated 43 communities within 5km of the Lebanese border from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the occupied Golan Heights in the east and may have to extend the evacuation period until the autumn.

More than 60,000 Israelis from the north have been displaced – as have an estimated 90,000 residents of south Lebanon – and are living in hotels or in rental accommodation, or with relatives or friends, away from the war zone as the state of low-level warfare continues.

Metula was founded by pioneer farmers from Russia in 1896 as the northernmost Jewish colony before Israel was established in 1948. On only one previous occasion – in 1920 when Arab gunmen attacked British and French troops in the area – did the residents flee.

“We have to change the equation. I want the government to act and remove the Hizbullah threat. We don’t want all-out war but I can’t see any other way,” says Azoulay. “I don’t trust Hizbullah and I don’t trust Lebanon. Maybe an agreement between the US and Iran will remove the Hizbullah threat. All we want is to live in peace and security.”

The powerful pro-Iranian Hizbullah started firing rockets at northern Israel on October 8th, the day after the surprise Hamas attack from Gaza. Cross-border exchanges of fire have continued ever since but the Hamas expectation that Hizbullah would launch an all-out war, opening a second front, has failed to materialise.

US envoy Amos Hochstein recently suspended his shuttle diplomacy aimed at restoring quiet on the northern border, convinced that Hizbullah will continue its attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli government officials have held talks in recent days with the heads of the local municipalities in the north over the possibility that the school year will not open on September 1st because of the tension and the potential for a major flare-up.

Israel says it will remove the Hizbullah threat, preferably via diplomatic channels but, if not, with a war.

Sarit Zehavi, president of the Alma research centre focusing on Israel’s security challenges in the north, believes that in the absence of a full-scale war, the Israel Defense Forces are following a middle, interim path.

“The objective of this third way is to obtain as many Israeli military gains as possible, as long as fighting with Hizbullah continues, but to do so without descending into war, and to maintain this situation until a ceasefire is reached.”

The Hamas attack on October 7th was a copy-paste of the blueprint drawn up, and widely publicised, by Hizbullah a decade ago: a massive rocket barrage as a cover for large-scale cross-border infiltrations by well trained, elite units with the aim of infiltrating Israeli communities to kill and kidnap as many civilians and soldiers as possible.

The possibility of such an attack by Hizbullah’s Radwan strike force still exists although is unlikely at this juncture due to the damage Israel has inflicted on Hizbullah – some 300 Hizbullah fighters have been killed according to Israeli estimates – since October and the large deployment of Israeli forces along the border.

However, the atrocities of October 7th have instilled fear into Israeli residents of the north and few are likely to return to their homes until Hizbullah is pushed far from the border. UN Resolution 1701, passed following the 2006 Israel-Hizbullah war, called for the removal of all militia forces to north of the Litani river, 20-30km north of the border, but Hizbullah militants are still deployed throughout southern Lebanon with impunity.

Kiryat Shmona, with a pre-war population of 24,000, lies 10km south of Metula. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s the town sustained incessant rocket fire from Palestine Liberation Organisation militias in south Lebanon, then dubbed Fatahland. But the residents stayed put and the town became a symbol of Israeli steadfastness under fire.

Not long ago, a top general told the town’s mayor that he would evacuate Beirut before evacuating Kiryat Shmona. The town was not in the original government evacuation plan, but after October 7th residents started to flee. The government caved in to demands to relocate Kiryat Shmona residents as well, turning it into the biggest community in the north to be evacuated.

Today, Kiryat Shmona resembles a ghost town. Only 3,000 residents remain – mostly emergency service workers and those who find it too difficult to relocate, such as the elderly and infirm.

Traffic is so light that the municipality has stopped operating the traffic lights. Only one supermarket is operating and that closes at noon and often lacks fresh produce. Residents report that wolves and other wild animals roam the streets at night.

Some 22 buildings, six kindergartens and two schools have been hit by Hizbullah rockets. One person has been killed and 12 injured, including two who suffered serious injuries.

“Before October 7th we were prepared for Hizbullah rocket fire but October 7th changed everything,” says Ariel Frish, Kiryat Shmona’s deputy security officer. “No one will come back until its safe. We will not live with the threat of Hizbullah knocking on our door, killing and raping us. If we don’t eliminate the threat a war will be just a matter of time.”

Many of the evacuees have already taken the decision not to return to Kiryat Shmona. Others are undecided, but the longer the uncertainty continues the greater the chances are that residents of Kiryat Shmona, and the other evacuees from northern Israel, will relocate on a permanent basis. Pressure is mounting on the government to act.

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