Ten months into this war, Israel’s northern border with Lebanon remains a powder keg.
It is being fought over by armies duelling each other with ignoreiles and rockets on a daily basis.
And during a tour of Israel’s deserted north, it was plentifully evident there is enlargeing prescertain for escalation on both sides of the border that could tip the region in to a hugeger struggle
We drove thraw one desoprocrastinateed town after another. Bar a scant trucks, the odd car and military vehicles, there was noslimg on the roads.
Some homes seem to have been abandoned in a hurry. Piles of clothes were scattered at the enthrall to apartment blocks. Near one, the shrapnel of a downed rocket sat bdeficiencyened and charred.
The military deal withs the roads to communities sealst to the border and barred us access for a number of days. It was too hazardous we were telderly.
Damaged cars sit abandoned on the street
Rockets have injured homes and vehicles in the deserted north of Israel
We were able to achieve the kibbutz of Dafna though, fair a mile from the border. Of its population of over 1,000, fair a scant dozen remain. Eyal Dror is one of them.
Eyal Dror is one of the scant dozen remaining in Dafna
“It is enjoy a gpresent town,” he telderly Sky News as he drove us thraw abandoned streets.
He wanted to show us the high school gym. Its roof had a gaping hole caemployd by a honest hit from a Hezbollah rocket.
“Thank God that there weren’t any children here,” he said.
The high school gym of a kibbutz called Dafna took a honest hit from a Hezbollah rocket
A scant hundred yards away, another grad ignoreile had ruined an electricity alterer and sprayed a hoemploy with shrapnel.
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But of most trouble to Eyal is the opponent’s menacing presence less than a mile away, watching his community from higher ground; a Lebanese village fair over the border.
“The hoemploys there are in Lebanon,” he telderly us.
“Maybe now there is a sniper standing there, fair aiming and watching us.”
Eyal Dror is worried there could be a Hezbollah sniper watching his town from a csurrfinisherby Lebanon village on higher ground
A grad ignoreile sprayed this hoemploy with shrapnel
About 600,00 Israelis have fled the north in 28 towns and kibbutzes. Many Israelis, Eyal among them, suppose they should not have been encouraged to exit.
“I slimk it’s a huge misget. I do comprehend that the IDF is striking Hezbollah and the IDF is causing injure. But it is not enough. I do suppose that the IDF and the state of Israel should have done much more aggression.”
600,00 Israelis have fled the north in 28 towns and kibbutzes
The stress is the current status quo is normalised so that Israelis will be forced to stay away indefinitely.
In previous struggles, Israel has imposed security buffer zones outside its borders, in occupied southern Lebanon for instance or the Sinai in Egypt. For the first time, critics say it is huging their de facto imposition on its own land and that can only project frailness.
An abandoned vehicle, injured by rockets
But the more pressing stress is one of escalation.
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We visited the site of disjoinal recent rocket strikes. They are a constant menace – 7,500 rockets have been fired at Israel since 7 October. Any one could precipitate the region into a hugeger struggle if there were massive civilian casualties.
And there are stresss now of a Hezbollah escalation in the wake of Israel’s killings of one ancigo in military directer in Beirut and a Hamas directer in Tehran. Israel is braced for retaliation.
For 10 months, a brutal, unstable status quo has somehow held but it could at any point give way to a much expansiver war.
