Over the past two months, hit by Israeli airstrikes, Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahye, have been transformed into neighborhoods ghost. This Wednesday, however, they were again full of people after the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement concluded between Hezbollah and Israel.
Sporadic gusts echo through the streets. The sound of assault rifles is actually a way of celebrating the end of bombing in an area once dotted with collapsed buildingsmountains of rubble and facades that defy the law of gravity.
In front of the still smoking ruins left by one of the attacks of the intense wave which preceded the entry into force of the truce, Wednesday at 4 a.m., a group of young people waves flags of the Lebanese Shiite group amid shouts of celebration and slogans of loyalty to their assassinated leader Hasan Nasrallah.
Similar scenes are repeated in certain roundabouts in Dahye, on the roads of which dozens of vehicles are already traveling. some wear mattresses attached to the ceilingsign of the return of the displaced. Others drive around in small caravans, playing music and cheering joyfully.
go home
Tamara is one of the many neighbors who returned to the suburbs this Wednesday after spending most of the air campaign that began on September 23 in a rental housing in the commune of Broumanaa predominantly Christian mountainous area close to the capital where he took refuge with his family.
“I am very happy to have returned home and, above all, to Dahye. There is some damage, but thank God, the main thing is return to our land“, he explains in statements to the agency Efe. However, other members of her entourage were less fortunate, since only about half of her relatives were able to return like her this Wednesday. “Some people lost their homes, so they didn’t come back” said the young woman.
Assaad Bzih, a displaced Lebanese man, sits near his destroyed home in Zibqin after the fire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.
Lebanon, and especially those nearby 1.2 million displaced by the air campaignlived Tuesday evening glued to the news while waiting for the Israeli announcement which would confirm the approval of the cessation of hostilities, counting the hours until its entry into force.
In Beirut, many spent the night awake while waiting for the end of the last campaign attacks launched in the latest wave of violence by Israel, which issued unprecedented evacuation orders for the entire city on Tuesday afternoon, coinciding with intense bombardment also in Dahye. “We stayed awake waiting for everything. The destruction they caused was massive, but that didn’t matter because we came back,” Tamara says.
Houses destroyed
This morning, some neighbors They are already removing the rubble and trash entrances to businesses or homes, trying to begin a return to normal as quickly as possible. In a devastated street, an old man removes, with a skimmer, accumulated cement dust at your doorstep.
Not only the displaced from Dahye, but also those from the south and east of the country, began to return to their homes as soon as the truce began. “At 6:00 p.m., we were there. Me, my mother and my brothers were all there at 6:00 p.m. sharp,” explains young Ali to Efe: lost his house under attackparticularly intense in this area.
He also lost a brother who fought alongside Hezbollah and died in Khiam, a southern city very close to the border de facto with Israel, where most of the clashes that began between the parties in October last year as well as the most recent escalation were concentrated.
“I was born here and I lived here and I’m still here,” confides Ali, happy to be at Dahye this Wednesday. Not far from there, another displaced person, who prefers to remain anonymous, explains that for two months he had been accommodated rent alternative accommodation in a safer area. “Of course, I took my family out, I have children,” he assures.
He claims that “all” of his company’s facilities were destroyed, including two warehouses of 3,000 square meters full of materials that have collapsed in recent weeks because of the violence. But, like many, he is content to think that everything finally seems to be over.
“I feel very happy that the war has stoppedand everyone goes home to see their stores and buildings,” he concludes.
Skepticism in northern Israel
On the other hand, the truce do not convince to Israeli residents of border communities, where more than 60,000 of them remain evacuated. Their feeling is now one of skepticism because they consider that this new agreement is far from being “ensure your safety”.
“We are honestly not very satisfied with this truce. My family and I have paid a very high price for more than a year to now have the feeling that our army has not finished its work”, deplores Tzahi David Hafsadi, 34 years old, resident of the evacuated northern town of Kiryat Shmonaand who has been living with his family in a hotel in Jerusalem for over a year.
Soldiers of the Lebanese army circulate in Qana, after the entry into force of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon.
In accordance with the ceasefire, within 60 days, forces of the Shiite Hezbollah militia will withdraw from southern Lebanon and move north of the Litani River. At the same time, the Israeli army will coordinate the arrival of the Lebanese army, which will occupy the border area.
This project, however, did not please Moran Brustin, a 39-year-old Israeli with two children, who, after living in a hotel for ten months, decided to return home even if it was has no shelterlocated in the kibbutz HaGoshrim.
“Coming back was not an easy decision, but it is very tiring to live in hotels. I think now it is a problem to stop the war against Hezbollah and it is not because I support wars, but it seems that nothing has changed. It is very difficult to trust our army after the judgments of October 7″, criticizes Brustin.
Fatigue among evacuees
You also have this feeling of fatigue Devour Ivgia 71-year-old Israeli resident of Avivim, a town near the demarcation line, whose house was partially destroyed by the impact of two rockets of Hezbollah.
“I would like to say that a truce does not mean that we will be able to go home tomorrow. I am also very tired of not being at home. And the worst thing is that even if everything is over, I cannot go back and if we do that, we will have to sleep with one eye open,” said this Israeli.
The lack of responses and coordination from the Israeli government is something that evacuees from the north have also lacked throughout this year, as explained by Taya Kadeshberg, a 35-year-old Israeli who evacuated the kibbutz Dan.
“We don’t feel safe and I think nothing has changed throughout this year. We live from day to day because neither the army nor the government have contacted us to explain their plans and give us a date when we can return,” explains Kadeshberg, who has been living in his family’s house for more than 13 months. relatives in central Israel.
And even though the deal includes the possibility that Israel could attack if Hezbollah violates the ceasefire, northern evacuees acknowledge they cannot shake their fear. “Israel should build a wall on the border with Lebanon to prevent incursions. I want go home with the guarantee of knowing that they won’t kidnap me or that they are not going to attack us,” Devora Ivgi said.
A military officer insisted on Wednesday that operations carried out over the past two months by Israeli troops have been successful destroy military infrastructure of the Lebanese militia, installed mainly in the south of the Arab country. “We know it will take us more than a year to return home, in the meantime we are surviving as best we can. The money we receive from the government does not compensate for this disaster,” said Orna Weinberg, a woman from 58 years old. years old, Israeli resident of Kibbutz Manara, also evacuated, in the north.
