Displaced people in northern Israel left homeless by threat from Lebanese Hezbollah

The Shiite Islamist movement launched hundreds of drones and rockets against military targets in Israel on Sunday, which had anticipated the attack by hitting thousands of rocket launchers.

Israel said it had foiled a large-scale Hezbollah attack on Sunday, August 25, by carrying out preemptive strikes in Lebanon. As for the Shiite movement, it claimed to have fired more than 320 rockets at military targets. Displaced people in the north of the Hebrew state have been closely following this increase in tensions, with the hope of a ground invasion of the Israeli army of southern Lebanon to allow them to return home.

In a hotel in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, displaced people followed events minute by minute, like Albert. He comes from the small town of Shlomi, which backs onto the Lebanese border: “I was woken up at 4:30 in the morning by a deafening noise. There were a lot of planes overhead and I thought, ‘Ah, finally!'” Albert then thinks that the Israeli army has just launched the assault to push the Hezbollah fighters further north and allow the Israeli residents to return home.

This is what he has been waiting for since October 17, the date on which he left his village, with a heavy heart. But it is not the case: “We are very disappointed because the army is not taking responsibility. Why should I live like a refugee for ten months? ? The only way to solve the problem is to go to war with Hezbollah, he assures.

The resentment is palpable and the bitterness visible on the face of Liora who lost her job as a childcare worker more than ten months ago. Like all displaced people, she can no longer stand this life. “It’s hard to say, but we pray that a war will take place, she laments. We move from hotel to hotel, we live three in a small room. We have been abandoned, it is very sad.”

In the areas where these displaced people used to live, the houses are now deserted or destroyed by rockets and shells fired by Hezbollah. Jacky, a father of four, does not understand why this situation is dragging on. He castigates the Israeli government: “They should have taken advantage of our absence and started a war to end this. We can’t go home because our city has become a military zone.” Jacky says, like all these displaced people, that he wants war, but only to force Hezbollah to negotiate a lasting peace.