'I've seen many wars' Residents on Lebanon boundary await conflict

The leafy streets of Kfar Rosh HaNikra are still and silent. This is not just a consequence of the sweltering July heat.

- Jason Burke

The kibbutz is just a few hundred metres from the disputed boundary that separates Israel from Lebanon, at the westernmost point of what Israelis call their northern front in the ongoing war.

The kibbutz's 1,000 residents were evacuated immediately after the surprise attacks that was launched into southern Israel from Gaza by Hamas on 7 October, killing 1,200, mostly civilians, and abducting 250.

Nine months later, barely any residents remain, others are scattered across northern Israel, staying with relatives, in rented apartments or hotels.

"They say they don't want to come back home because they don't feel secure," says Janet Tass, 73, who left with the other residents last year but decided to return to her small home just a month or so later. "The feeling of missing this place was so deep and terrible I couldn't stand it."

Amid the looming possibility of war with Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has advanced posts on the ridge just north of Kfar Rosh HaNikra, few are hurrying home.

For months, the militant Islamist organisation has fired mortars, missiles and rockets and sent drones on bombing runs into Israel, mainly targeting the communities living just south of the UN-controlled boundary line.

The attacks have killed 16 soldiers and a number of civilians.

In response, Israel has bombed and shelled villages where Hezbollah has its forces and assassinated senior commanders with airstrikes. Israeli strikes on Lebanon since October have killed 450 people, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 97 civilians. Almost 100,000 have been forced to flee their homes.

The deadly exchanges have stopped just short of all-out war.