Fears Of A New War On Border With Lebanon As Tensions Rise

For the Israeli communities evacuated from the country's far north in the aftermath of 7 October, there is no longer any doubt about whether full-scale war with Hezbollah in Lebanon is going to happen. For most people, the only question is when.

- Bethan McKernan and Quique Kierszenbaum

Nissan Zeevi, 40, has spent the past six months working as a first responder in Kfar Giladi, a kibbutz that grows apples and avocados. His wife and two young boys are living near the Sea of Galilee and have yet to come home; it's just him, bulldog Joy, and his M16 rifle, keeping an eye on the Lebanese villages and Hezbollah outposts clearly visible from the garden, just a few kilometres away.

"The Iron Dome was a strategic mistake," said the agro-tech entrepreneur during a visit last week, referring to Israel's state-of-the-art air defence system, first deployed in 2011. "It normalised rockets hitting Israel, it gave us the feeling of security. But feeling secure is not the same as being secure. After 7 October we woke up.

"We can't put off decisions any more. Everyone knows something is going to happen, because we have to push Hezbollah back to be safe."

The day after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its devastating attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting another 250, Hezbollah joined the fray, firing rockets and mortars at the villages and farms abutting the UN-demarcated Blue Line separating the two countries.

In the first days after Israel began its retaliatory offensive in Gaza, US president Joe Biden dissuaded Israel's war cabinet from also launching a preventative ground offensive on Hezbollah that could trigger a regional conflict. Instead, on Israel's northern front, the two sides have been fighting a war of attrition, but the situation is getting more dangerous by the day.