Hezbollah and the Israeli forces proceeded with an additional escalation in the border area, the majority of whose population was displaced on both sides of the border.
Hezbollah hit an Israeli military target with a drone about 12 kilometers from the nearest border point with Lebanon, while the Israeli forces relied on significant firepower resulting from air strikes.
Israel evacuated a large number of settlements and towns in Upper Galilee and Western Galilee to a depth of 7 km; Hezbollah asked the remaining residents of some villages located directly on the border in the region to leave.
Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that ten days ago, Hezbollah wished the remaining residents would leave the area following the significant Israeli military escalation and the targeting of civilian homes.
The sources explained that “some residents evacuated their homes, while others refused to leave.”
They noted that those who refuse to leave their homes either have no choice due to particular circumstances or are determined to stay and will not leave their homes.
A resident of Marjaayoun district “refused to move because of the difficulty of providing care for his sick mother outside the home, who suffers from health problems that have left her paralyzed,” said the sources. Therefore, he refuses to leave despite the danger threatening the residents.
- Air strikes
Israeli forces have intensified the frequency of air strikes in the last two weeks, targeting residential sites and populated neighborhoods.
In Kafr Kila, Israeli aircraft carried out intensive raids that created a belt of fire around the border town, the first of its kind since the outbreak of confrontations, killing three people, including two paramedics of Hezbollah’s al-Hayʾa al-Sahhiyya al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Health Committee).
Several homes were destroyed, and others were partially damaged, resulting from nearby bombings or raids, according to the sources.
On the other side of the border, Israeli authorities evacuated the settlements.
The Times of Israel newspaper quoted Tuesday the head of the northern Upper Galilee Reginal Council, Giora Zaltz, as warning that if Israel “doesn’t significantly harm Hezbollah’s ability to act,” the war will have been lost.
“On a national level, the north and the south will be taken 30 years backward,” he said.
He noted that after almost three months of war, there is still no government body dedicated to overseeing civilians from northern Israel, thousands of whom have been displaced.
“We want to come back to our industry, to farming, to high-tech, and education,” Zaltz says. “We will come back but don’t deserve to continue living in this enormous fear.”
Zaltz cautioned that they would be in a terrible place if the government didn’t start to assume responsibility for the North and the South.
