Posted on Dec 14, 2023
Away from Gaza, homes in south Lebanon bear the scars of Israel's other front line
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https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/ [login to see] /lebanon-israel-border-hezbollah-conflict
Since the war in Gaza began, this quiet farming village along the Israeli border has found itself on the front lines of a parallel conflict — the patios of gracious stone homes now a dangerous front-row seat to the attacks between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, occupying the south of the country for 18 years. Fighting flared again into war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia. Since then, despite sporadic attacks, this region of southern Lebanon, with its rich soil and olive groves, has been stable enough that many villagers built sprawling homes on land they have farmed for generations.
One of them is Ibrahim Hamoud, 72, who sat on a plastic chair on a patio covered with broken glass two weeks ago, on what turned out to be the last day of a weeklong truce between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip. The temporary cease-fire was accompanied by a halt in almost all attacks across the Lebanese border, just a few hundred yards from his home.
Since the war in Gaza began, this quiet farming village along the Israeli border has found itself on the front lines of a parallel conflict — the patios of gracious stone homes now a dangerous front-row seat to the attacks between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, occupying the south of the country for 18 years. Fighting flared again into war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia. Since then, despite sporadic attacks, this region of southern Lebanon, with its rich soil and olive groves, has been stable enough that many villagers built sprawling homes on land they have farmed for generations.
One of them is Ibrahim Hamoud, 72, who sat on a plastic chair on a patio covered with broken glass two weeks ago, on what turned out to be the last day of a weeklong truce between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip. The temporary cease-fire was accompanied by a halt in almost all attacks across the Lebanese border, just a few hundred yards from his home.
Away from Gaza, homes in south Lebanon bear the scars of Israel's other front line
Posted from npr.org
Israel
Palestine
Posted 5 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
...""It is an unhealable wound," Abu Walid said of the massacre. "There is not a family in Houla who did not lose someone," he said, noting that the descendants of the dead men would have made up their own village by now had they lived.
The next day, Dec. 1, the cease-fire was broken. Abu Walid, reached by phone, said his aunt and son were killed in their home, buried in rubble when an Israeli airstrike hit their house in Houla. Hezbollah claimed the young man as one of its fighters.
The day after that, Hamoud said another airstrike had hit his house. A video he sent showed it almost completely demolished.
Hamoud said he had finally decided to stay somewhere safer at night but sneaks back quickly in the day to feed his goats.
He said he planned to try to repair his house, he hoped with the help of Hezbollah, which in 2006 compensated villagers for damage to their homes caused by fighting.
"Of course we will rebuild," he said. "It is our land. Nobody can take our land."
A field in Houla, in southern Lebanon, has blackened olive trees and other impacts from Israeli strikes alleged to have contained white phosphorus. Human rights and environmental groups have condemned the Israeli military's use of the substance.
A field in Houla, in southern Lebanon, has blackened olive trees and other impacts from Israeli strikes alleged to have contained white phosphorus. Human rights and environmental groups have condemned the Israeli military's use of the substance"
...""It is an unhealable wound," Abu Walid said of the massacre. "There is not a family in Houla who did not lose someone," he said, noting that the descendants of the dead men would have made up their own village by now had they lived.
The next day, Dec. 1, the cease-fire was broken. Abu Walid, reached by phone, said his aunt and son were killed in their home, buried in rubble when an Israeli airstrike hit their house in Houla. Hezbollah claimed the young man as one of its fighters.
The day after that, Hamoud said another airstrike had hit his house. A video he sent showed it almost completely demolished.
Hamoud said he had finally decided to stay somewhere safer at night but sneaks back quickly in the day to feed his goats.
He said he planned to try to repair his house, he hoped with the help of Hezbollah, which in 2006 compensated villagers for damage to their homes caused by fighting.
"Of course we will rebuild," he said. "It is our land. Nobody can take our land."
A field in Houla, in southern Lebanon, has blackened olive trees and other impacts from Israeli strikes alleged to have contained white phosphorus. Human rights and environmental groups have condemned the Israeli military's use of the substance.
A field in Houla, in southern Lebanon, has blackened olive trees and other impacts from Israeli strikes alleged to have contained white phosphorus. Human rights and environmental groups have condemned the Israeli military's use of the substance"
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