Israelis Wary of Lebanon Truce Trickle Back to Damaged Homes

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(Bloomberg) – The school is out of service – it was hit by heavy shrapnel in July. Some houses are closed from direct strikes. Many hectares of avocado orchards were lost to fires started by missiles.

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But Kibbutz Dafna, an Israeli farming community located 2 kilometers (1 mile) from the Lebanese border, is offering a tentative air of hope now that a ceasefire with Lebanon that began on November 27 is still largely holding.

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“Listen to this silence,” said Major David Baruch as he stood in front of Dafna’s administrative offices, not wearing a helmet or protective gear. “It hasn’t been heard for 14 months.”

The agreement brokered by the United States and France began a 60-day transition period during which Israel and the Hezbollah militia agreed to silence their weapons. In addition, Hezbollah will withdraw its forces approximately 30 kilometers north of the border, and Israeli forces will return home, to be replaced by Lebanese and international peacekeeping forces. Tens of thousands of residents forced out by both sides will slowly return.

The beginning was difficult. Israel repeatedly fired on Hezbollah forces and said they were violating the terms of the agreement. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati complained to Washington and Paris that Israel had violated the agreement at least 60 times. A few days ago, Hezbollah fired mortar shells, prompting Israel to retaliate against its forces throughout Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that more such violations will push Israel to stop distinguishing between the militia and the state of Lebanon. Hezbollah, which the United States designates as a terrorist group, stopped firing.

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One problem was that Hezbollah and Lebanese officials failed to explain sufficiently to residents that they should not return now because Israeli forces were still in place. Many Lebanese returned to their homes immediately after the deal was announced.

Israeli residents in the north, who had been staying for more than a year at government expense in hotels and temporary housing, were told to wait, and they did.

The other big difference between the two sides is the extent of death and damage. Israeli air and ground forces reduced large areas of southern Lebanon to rubble, and at least 3,000 Lebanese, many of them civilians, were killed. In Israel, the devastation was more contained and the death toll reached approximately 70 people.

Major Baruch said: “In the villages near the border, we found tunnels, bunkers and battle plans, and we destroyed them on a large scale.”

Never – neither in the 1948 War of Independence nor the 1973 Yom Kippur War – had Kibbutz Dafna, founded in 1939, been evacuated before October 2023. It was a sign of how traumatized the country was when thousands of Hamas activists poured into southern Israel. . Murder and kidnapping. The subsequent war in Gaza killed about 44,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health authority in the Strip, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

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“When we saw this, we were afraid that Hezbollah would do the same thing here, so when we were asked to evacuate, we did,” said Arik Yaqoubi, who ran the burial. The community’s 1,050 residents earn their living through agriculture, solar energy and tourism in one of the most rural and valuable areas of Israel. The order was issued at 6:30 a.m. on October 16, and by 4 p.m. everyone was gone.

Among them was Orit Bragg, 69, who was born on the kibbutz and whose parents were among its founders. This week she was walking around the community grounds in a way she hasn’t been able to do for 14 months.

“Until a week or two ago, you couldn’t park here,” she said outside her son’s house, whose windows were boarded up after being blown out when the house next door took a direct hit last summer. “My grandchildren will be back to spend the night at our house for the first time since we all left.”

School principal Ravit Rosenthal said it would take some time before students could return due to damage to the building’s roof. They were studying 40 kilometers away in a converted factory, and many of the students and teachers suffered severe emotional distress.

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“I talk about addiction, alcohol and insomnia,” she said outside the school building.

Director Yacobi said he has not spoken with any kibbutz families who do not plan to return. “However, it will take a generation for a sense of security to return,” he added.

A 10-minute drive west is the town of Kiryat Shmona, most of whose 24,000 residents were also evacuated at the beginning of the war. Yotam Dejani, a city official, said no one ever thought an evacuation order would be issued and there was no plan in place when the order was issued.

He said: “Over the years, we have become accustomed to bombings, and we probably have more bomb shelters per capita than any city in the world – 431 public bomb shelters. However, almost everyone left when it came. This year alone we had 1,500 casualties.” Directly, 1,000 homes were damaged or completely damaged.”

Ahi Natan’s family compound was one of the damaged homes. While accompanying a visitor, the 35-year-old married musician was asked about his views on the ceasefire and the future.

“This is what I know,” he said. “Ceasefire or no ceasefire, my sons will fight in Lebanon. Their sons will fight in Gaza. We know how they feel about us. They want us dead. No matter what happens, we will not leave.”

-With assistance from Julius Domoni.

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