Tal’s hand moves the camera chosen from dozens to the right or left with the mouse. Zoom in or out thanks to the powerful zoom of the objective, which manages to show some houses used by Hezbollah —— in the Lebanese town of Khiam, about five kilometers from the Metula bunker (Israel) in which he is surrounded by screens. “This is just the border,” he comments, pointing to a double chain-link fence. Without ever taking down his rifle, this 46-year-old Israeli reservist, who prefers not to give his last name, monitors the enemy threat from this command center. Five people died last Thursday from the impact of a missile while picking apples. As an example of the daily danger, Tal recovers a video recorded a few weeks ago of the launch of an anti-tank projectile towards Metula from Khiam, in southern Lebanon.
It has been more than a month—since October 1—and hitting the towns around the dividing line in an attempt to deactivate the Hezbollah threat. But, attacks daily. This is stated by the mayor, David Azoulai, and several soldiers. The councilor refers to the raids and the weapons found in the surrounding Lebanese towns as part of Israel’s plan to once again make the north of the country, a safe zone. However – and while maintaining that the threat has decreased “significantly” – the reservist recognizes that it “has not been completely eliminated.”
Israel announced last Sunday and this Wednesday that it has killed two Hezbollah officials in Khiam, the town that Tal shows from the checkpoint. These are Farouk Amin Alasi and Abd al Haleem Harb, considered responsible for “many attacks with anti-tank missiles and rockets against Israeli communities in the Galilee strip, and especially Metula,” according to the army. From the other side of the border, the reality of war is seen differently. Ground and air operations by Israeli troops have destroyed some 40,000 houses in thirty towns in these five weeks, according to the official Lebanese agency, which speaks of “a campaign of destruction” against the southern regions with up to “37 villages.” devastated.”
In the bunker, Azoulai shows remains of weapons brought to Metula from Lebanon and which, he claims, are manufactured in Iran, Russia or North Korea. There are mortars, Katiusha rockets and drones. One of the main objectives that has been set is that the residents of the north of the country can return to their homes safely. The reality on the ground shows that this is not going to happen in the short term. “This is not the time for civilians to return. That will be when security is fully guaranteed in the north,” says the mayor. For now, “the threat of missiles and anti-tank projectiles continues,” he adds. “We are prepared for as long as necessary, until the threat is completely eliminated.”
Metula, which had about 2,500 inhabitants before being evacuated at the beginning of the war, is the northernmost town in Israel. It is closer in a straight line to Beirut (Lebanon) and Damascus (Syria), about 70 kilometers, than to Haifa (Israel), about 80. Its houses, almost all empty today, are located on what is above the The map looks like a narrow alley less than two kilometers wide, surrounded by the Lebanese border to the east, west and north. The constant threat that comes from the other side and the movement of troops has turned the town into a combat zone. It can only be accessed from the south, always with permission and accompaniment from the army, as EL PAÍS did last Monday, along with other media outlets.
Barely half a dozen residents have decided to remain in the town along with some municipal employees, the local security team and a handful of uniformed officers who wander through deserted streets. The army continues to grant permits to certain workers. (A measure that has caused controversy in recent days, because it is a closed military zone right on the front). “It does this so that agricultural activity can be maintained, especially the apple harvest,” highlights David Azoulai. The continuation of this work allowed a missile to kill four Thai workers and one Israeli last Thursday. The Government of Thailand has issued a statement of protest.
“There are no words to explain it. It was horrible,” explains Aviv, a 55-year-old reservist, who also does not give his last name. He was one of the first to arrive at the farm where the rocket hit. With a son enrolled in the well-known Golani brigade, which these days is participating in the invasion of Lebanon after doing so in Gaza, he does not see the return of the population to Metula or the rest of the towns evacuated from the border area possible in the short term. The deployment has distanced the Hezbollah militants, but they have not stopped launching projectiles “from increasingly further away, sometimes from 20 kilometers,” he says in front of an elderly man’s house destroyed a couple of months ago in one of those attacks. .
A dozen kilometers further south, the terrace of the home of Miki Caspi, 70, and his partner, Nahum, 63, is the perfect vantage point to observe the war from Kiriat Shmona, a town also bordering Lebanon. Although the attacks persist and often have to be sheltered in the duplex’s safe room, Caspi points out; Both feel safer since Israeli troops occupy territory beyond the border and dismantle the tunnels through which Hezbollah militants could reach the Israeli side.
Most of Kiryat Shmona’s 20,000 residents were evacuated and around 10% have returned, although Caspi and Nahum never left. On its roof, full of exquisitely cared for flowers and plants, the Israeli and rainbow flags fly; A black spot of scorched earth in an olive grove about 200 meters away marks the impact site of one of the latest attacks.
“There are no innocents in those towns,” says Mike Caspi, pointing to the border mountains while expressing his distrust in . “In the last 17 years, from neighboring farmers who interacted with the inhabitants of Metula it has turned to Shiites who seek to kill Israelis,” he says. That is the period between the last war between Lebanon and Israel, in the summer of 2006, and the beginning of the current one, in 2023.
