This content was published on November 29, 2023 – July 15:57,
By Aziz Taher and Hussein Al-Waeli
Mays al-Jabal, Lebanon (Reuters) – Residents of southern Lebanon, who had fled fighting in their areas last month, rushed to return to their homes to inspect the damage, taking advantage of a temporary truce in the war between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), a truce they hope will end it. The worst cross-border clashes in nearly 20 years.
Negotiators have been urging Israel and Hamas to extend a six-day truce in a conflict that has sent shockwaves through the region since October 7 and has spread to the Lebanese-Israeli border in exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
In the area, which is about two hundred kilometers from the Gaza Strip in southern Lebanon, residents in areas showing traces of Israeli bombing felt relieved to be able to return to their homes since Friday, when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect.
Mabda Salloum, a resident of the town of Yaroun, who fled north with his family to the capital, Beirut, said, “We are very happy that we have returned to the village… We hope that this truce will become a permanent truce, God willing.”
The clashes, during which Israel launched air strikes and artillery shelling, and Hezbollah fired rockets and shells at Israeli positions on the border, constituted the worst wave of violence on the Lebanese border since the party fought a war with Israel in 2006.
Many families took advantage of the temporary pause in the fighting to return to collect their belongings from their homes and inspect the losses. Schools and most stores are closed in the area.
About 55,000 people were forced to flee across southern Lebanon as of November 21, according to United Nations figures. Many also fled their homes in northern Israel.
Huge parts of the walls were destroyed, windows were shattered, and broken dishes and smashed furniture were scattered in the living room of the home of Amal Jaber, a resident of one of the villages, but she said, “May God protect these young people, grant them success, and protect them, God willing. The quarantine does not matter, the important thing is the people.”
Israeli attacks have killed about 100 people in Lebanon, 80 of whom were Hezbollah fighters, since October 7.
* “People miss their homes and land”
Qasim Jaber Mukhtar, mayor of Muhaibib, said that although no one was killed in the town due to the Israeli bombing, homes were damaged and farmers were unable to harvest olives and they also died from planting next season’s crops.
He added that as a result of the bombing and the displacement of residents, “naturally (people) were not able to settle on their land. There is the olive season, and (they missed) the olive season… The farmer wanted to grow his supplies (enough) of wheat (and) fodder from Anything, the farmer would not have been able to come down (to cultivate his land). Of course there is a loss in this matter.”
He commented on the residents’ eagerness to return once the truce took effect, saying, “People long for their homes… for their land.”
Yellow banners lined the roads in Muhaibib and other villages, mourning Hezbollah fighters who died in the fighting.
Abdel Moneim Choucair, the mayor of the town of Mays al-Jabal, a mile from the border, said that many people had returned to their homes as the ceasefire entered its fifth day.
Twenty kilometers to the west, in the village of Yater, a farmer in her fifties named Fatima Karim said she thanked God for the calm.
Fatima explained, “We (want) to cultivate the land and plant before the winter season, and we will remain (we will remain here) to hear (until we hear) the first shell. If it does not fall on us, we will return to fleeing. Our lives, our livelihood, our agriculture, and our fields are here. We are just going out (looking).” From our home as if our souls were leaving, we will benefit from the truce until the last moment, and I hope there will be a permanent ceasefire.”
Hassan Fadlallah, a senior Hezbollah politician, said on Tuesday that the group had begun paying compensation to people who suffered losses in Israeli strikes.
Fadlallah added, citing a Hezbollah survey of the damage resulting from Israeli attacks, that 37 residential buildings were completely destroyed and 11 other buildings were consumed by fire. Various damages affected 1,500 other homes in parts of the south.
In the village of Alma Al-Shaab, Milad Eid, a local hotel owner, said that about half of the agricultural land and almond, avocado and olive orchards were burned, in addition to eight houses and a water tank.
“If the calm lasts longer, we can actually fix all of this,” he added.
He went on to say that officials from the Lebanese government, Hezbollah’s Jihad al-Binaa Foundation, and some non-governmental organizations visited the area to assess the damage.
He added, “We just want it to end… We want to extend the truce to reach complete calm. An extension is possible.”
(Co-reporting by Laila Bassam and Maya Al-Jubaili from Beirut – Prepared by Salma Najm and Muhammad Harfouche for the Arab Bulletin – Editing by Ayman Saad Muslim)
2023-11-29 14:57:40
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