Fighting with Hezbollah creates more uncertainty for Israelis living near Lebanon border

A year ago, Hezbollah opened fire on northern Israel one day after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in what it called solidarity with Hamas. Soon after, the Israeli government evacuated more than 60,000 residents living near the border. Nick Schifrin has been traveling across northern Israel and begins his report from Kiryat Shmona, just a mile and a half from the Lebanese border.
Amna Nawaz:
Despite Israel’s airstrikes and ground incursion, the Israeli military said today that Hezbollah fired more than 230 rockets and drones from Lebanon into Northern Israel. Cross-border rocket attacks have become common over the last year.
The day after the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, Hezbollah opened fire in an act of solidarity with Hamas. Soon after, the Israeli government evacuated more than 60,000 residents living near the border.
Nick Schifrin has been traveling across Northern Israel and begins his report tonight from Kiryat Shmona, just a mile-and-a-half from the Lebanese border.
Nick Schifrin:
The road to what used to be the largest city in Israel’s north is quiet. Inside Kiryat Shmona, the homes bear the scars of war, what used to be a roof over this family’s head now a gaping window into their living room.
For 11 months, the town’s been Hezbollah’s biggest short-range target, hit on more than 200 separate occasions, including last weekend, a direct strike through the roof of the city’s main mall.
There’s schools right across the street behind us and the Hezbollah attack struck right here. Ariel Frisch is the city’s deputy security chief. He shows me a site hit by three rockets, two artillery shells and one missile earlier this year.
Ariel Frisch, Deputy Security Chief, Kiryat Shmona, Israel:
If we hear an alarm, on the best case, it’s 10 seconds. Most of the time, we can hear the whistle and the boom, and then we hear the alarm.
Nick Schifrin:
Before October the 7th, he’d never done security. He was a rabbi and school principal. But, today, the kindergarten in a residential neighborhood is empty. Its playground stands unused.
Nearly all of the 24,000 residents have been evacuated. Today the basketball courts are shot through with shrapnel. The city’s frozen in time, its soundtrack mostly silence punctuated by projectiles. Above the city’s gas station late last week, Hezbollah rockets intercepted by Israeli air defense.
Ariel Frisch:
Hezbollah doesn’t care if he’s losing troops or commanders. He is terror organization. And a terror organization is only about striking fear. As long as we keep the evacuation going, Hezbollah is winning as far as he’s telling the story.
Nick Schifrin:
The city’s staff have all remained under threat, often underground.
Mayor Avichai Stern holds his meetings in a bombshell shelter. Israel always expected an October 7-style attack. It just expected it from the north, as Stern showed us earlier this year.
Avichai Stern, Mayor of Kiryat Shmona, Israel (through interpreter): In 2015, Hezbollah published a video on how it will conquer the Galilee, the same scenario as we saw in October in the south. I do not underestimate that. They can cause much larger damage than Hamas.
Nick Schifrin:
And so he supports what Israel calls a — quote — “limited invasion of Lebanon” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, even if, today, Stern told us more than 40 percent of Kiryat Shmona will never return.
Avichai Stern (through interpreter):
In order for us to bring the residents back here safely, it is not enough to just eliminate the top of the organization. We need to destroy the infrastructure that threatens the citizens every day and also push them back, so that they cannot threaten us with direct fire.
Nick Schifrin:
That threat is from Hezbollah’s Radwan units, whose videos portray fighters operating within sight of Israeli towns, including some built on the hills of the Western Galilee.
This is the core of Israel’s challenge. Behind me is the bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, so close to the Lebanese border you can actually see the fence that Israel has built, close enough for Hezbollah fighters to be able to use short-range weapons like rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles to fire into the city, and close enough for Hezbollah to build tunnels underneath that border.
Just after October 7, Hezbollah fighters tried to infiltrate the village. In that attack, Radwan Force an Israeli deputy brigade commander before being repelled. And, in April, Hezbollah videotaped as it launched a combined drone and missile strike that hit a community center turned military barracks, killing two Israeli soldiers.
Adeb Al-Mazal the community’s manager.
Adeb Al-Mazal, Community Manager, Arab al-Aramshe, Israel (through interpreter): The feeling is very difficult for the residents. There’s fear. There’s anxiety. I evacuated the first day of the war. I evacuated to a hotel. I was evacuated to several hotels.
Nick Schifrin:
Thousands of those displaced have landed in Tel Aviv hotels. And for the Gal sisters, home is a 150-square-foot hotel room. They fled here last October, after their little brother was born on October the 2nd and, five days later, Nofar Gal’s husband was called up to the military.
Nofar Gal, Kiryat Shmona, Israel, Resident (through interpreter):
It was very difficult, especially in the beginning. It was after my Caesarean section. And when my baby was 1-week old, we had to flee our home. And we arrived with a real sense of grief. It was hard, but life in Tel Aviv went on as normal. And it was very strange to see that.
Did you feel like you didn’t belong here?
Nofar Gal (through interpreter):
Yes. At the very beginning, we walked around the street and…
(Crying)
Nick Schifrin:
She longs for her life back in Kiryat Shmona, but this sanctuary has become a war zone.
Nofar Gal (through interpreter):
We felt like we were being kicked out of our own home. And you come to a place where there is nothing. I can’t be in my home. I can’t be with my husband. And my sister was drafted as well.
Nick Schifrin:
A separated family provides mutual support. They don’t know when they will return home, but they have a roof and each other.
For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Nick Schifrin in Tel Aviv.