Residents of southern Lebanon are anxious for a second round of fighting

Nada (25 years old) had tears in her eyes as she closed the door of her house in the border town of Khiam in southern Lebanon, and addressed her mother, saying: “I want to stay in our house. “I hate that we are turning into displaced persons,” while her mother tries to calm her down, promising her to return soon when the fear fades, stressing that the departure is “forced,” as long as the calm “has not yet turned into a ceasefire agreement.”

The border villages in southern Lebanon were crowded with visitors on Saturday and Sunday. On the coastal road linking Beirut to the south, a long line of cars extends from Al-Awali Bridge, which is the northern entrance to the city of Sidon, to the entrance to Rumaila, over a length of 5 kilometers. “All the people of the south are determined to go to their villages,” a man addresses another citizen from the window of a car stuck in traffic, and the second responds by saying that this traffic has not been seen in the area for about two months.

Forced departure

The people of the south benefited from the truce in Gaza, to inspect their homes and property in the border area, or to collect their crops from agricultural lands after 46 days of mutual bombing between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, which targeted civilian homes and agricultural fields, forcing residents to flee, and forcing those descended from those areas. Villagers who live in Beirut should not visit it.

Nada took advantage of the truce to inspect her home in Khiam, about 20 days after he left. She told Asharq Al-Awsat that she forcibly left him at the beginning of this month “after the bombing approached the homes,” noting that her little girl “was waking up frightened whenever a shell sounded.” She said that she returned to her home to carry some winter luggage, before the onset of winter, to return to her temporary home in the city of Tyre.

Nada and her mother did not stay in the area for more than 3 hours. “We do not know when the second round of fighting will begin if the truce in Gaza falters,” like hundreds of residents of border villages who visited the area for a few hours, during which they inspected their homes and relatives “steadfast under the bombardment.” In their homes, says Hassan, who went to his village of Kafr Kila for a few hours, before leaving on Saturday evening.

Hassan says: “It is not possible to coexist with the sounds of drones. We do not know at what time they might target homes.” He added: “I visited the house with the intention of spending Saturday night there, but I could not bear the constant sound of the march above our heads. “I left in a hurry.”

Second round

The truce did not help return residents to their homes. They fear that it will be temporary, and they expect a second round of fighting “if the Gaza crisis is not completely resolved starting Tuesday morning,” after the end of the four-day deadline for the truce and the exchange of prisoners between Hamas and the Israeli army. In their opinion, the cautious calm does not dispel fears of renewed war, and they cite dozens of strikes that targeted civilian residential areas in border villages, some of which led to the destruction of homes, while the Lebanese army worked, on Saturday, to detonate unexploded ordnance that had been struck by Israeli forces.

On the opposite side of the border, signs of life disappear. In the “Miskav Am” colony opposite the town of Al-Adisa, there is no trace of Israeli movement, as well as in the Metulla colony facing the Khiam Plain. The two Israeli colonies appear completely desolate, even the Israeli guard posts that were usually visible from Lebanese territory have been completely emptied. The Lebanese say that the residents of the colonies also seem to be wary of a second round of fighting, which could break out at any moment.

Carrying out agricultural work

Between the first round of bombing, which has been ongoing since Friday, and fears of the next, the Lebanese residents hastened to implement what they were late in doing “to prevent the loss of the next season.” In the fields, olive harvesting workshops spread after about a month’s delay in the harvest date, “to pick what we can before the start of the new round, and to collect the crops from the fields.” As for agricultural plows, they spread to the Marjayoun and Khiam plains to plow the land. A sixty-year-old man sipping his coffee from a small kiosk that was reopened on the Khiam-Marjayoun road said: “This red soil was not visible two days ago. “It is very strange how the tillers descended on the plain on Friday morning and plowed it almost completely.”

Quiet disturbed by drones

Except for the hum of low-flying Israeli drones, no gunshots were heard Sunday. The Israeli marches violated the cautious calm throughout the border area. In addition to the eastern sector of the border, the official “National News Agency” reported that an MK spy aircraft flight was recorded over the skies of the villages of Tyre, especially over Naqoura and the southern coast, reaching as far as Al-Shaab, Marwahin, Al-Dhahira, and Tayr Harfa. The agency indicated that patrols of the United Nations Interim Forces in South Lebanon (UNIFIL), accompanied by army vehicles, are roaming along the border villages.

Before evening came, the returnees gathered their belongings and headed again towards Beirut and other temporary housing sites. “Children must attend schools, and we will not return before they open once we are confident that the Gaza war is over.” Southerners left their villages again, amid fears of a second round of fighting.