2 weeks ago
69
ARTICLE AD BOX
Two weeks after the ceasefire, almost no one has returned to the North.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB DECEMBER 9, 2024 19:28
Hezbollah rocket hit Metulla house, northern Israel, December 9, 2024.
(photo credit: YONAH JEREMY BOB)
The same message came from officials in the municipality and common people of Metula and Kiryat Shmona to The Jerusalem Post during a tour of the North on Monday: rebuilding after 14 months of Hezbollah’s attacks is not a matter of months or a year, but likely five years.
Further, almost no one has returned despite two weeks having passed since the November 26 ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Manarah and some other villages which were heavily hit by Hezbollah are in similar circumstances.
Kfar Yuval, which the Post attempted to visit, and other villages are still completely closed and abandoned for the time being.
Kfar Giladi, which the Post visited, and some other villages are experiencing a trickle of returnees because their homes and infrastructure were not destroyed on the same scale as the worst hit northern locations, but still have very few returnees.
A common theme in all of the locations visited by the Post was that a majority of the population, those with children, will not even consider returning until the end of this school year.
That means, even in the best case scenario where northern residents want to return, that the vast majority of these northern locations are guaranteed to be ghost towns – which was how they looked to the Post - or at least partial ghost towns for another seven to nine months.
And how many really want to return?
Some believe that the second the 60-day ceasefire ends, Hezbollah will violate it with a small number of rockets. And then what is “small” to the rest of Israel will once again be deadly for these residents.
Others believe that Hezbollah will be patient and wait some period of years to rehabilitate its rocket arsenal before attacking, but are virtually certain that it will attack again, whether in three or five years.
Stay updated with the latest news!
Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter
Kiryat Shmona Spokesman Doron Shneper told the Post, “after 15 months, the war Is still going on, and the residents are still impatiently kept from their houses. We need absolute security and an absolute victory, not a ceasefire.”
Pressed that the IDF has killed 25 Hezbollah fighters since the ceasefire, he responded, “We don’t need the IDF to kill 100 or 1,000 of Hezbollah; we need Hezbollah not to exist…We cannot have another October 7” carried out by Hezbollah against the residents of the North.
Next, he was pressed about why Kiryat Shmona is not moving forward with government funds for rebuilding, like the village of Shlomi, which sent out photos of rebuilding this week and spoke to the Post but failed to facilitate a visit to see if the rebuilding is a mere promo or serious.
He said it was better to wait to rebuild until there was true security rather than rushing to rebuild, only for the newly built structures to be destroyed by Hezbollah again.
The statistics
Part of the story is in the statistics.
In Metula, out of 650 structures, 100 experienced direct hits from Hezbollah rockets or anti-tank missiles, and 400 experienced indirect hits. That means that 70% of the residences are not even currently in a condition for residents to return.
Also, almost no one in Metula has proper safe rooms. Many residences have none and a small number have much older safe rooms, which both are in disrepair and would not stand up to Hezbollah’s current weapons.
Shortly before the war started, 39 residences were due to get new safe rooms, but only 16 received them by the time of the war, and two of these safe rooms were destroyed by more powerful Hezbollah rockets (given that they are designed only to protect against less powerful attacks.)
Metula’s security chief, Doron Mano, gave the Post a tour of several Metula houses that experienced direct hits.
Hezbollah fired 1,600 rockets and mortars and another 450 anti-tank missiles at Metula alone during the war.
Mano noted that many of the houses were hit by a large barrage on September 19.
One house he showed off of Zami Ravid, experienced multiple hits after having lived in Metula for over 50 years.
The second floor of the house was mostly destroyed and caused a collapse of the house onto large portions of the first floor.
Several other houses on the same street were struck in the same barrage.
Yet another house in a different neighborhood of Metula was hit by the same barrage, also with significant damage to the roof and a disfigured-looking pool.
Sarah Caspi, a neighbor to that house, was back temporarily checking on the status of her house, which had minor damage.
She said she was still interested in living in Metula at some point, but the situation is complex.
None of her children, who also used to live in Metula, want to return, and “they think I am crazy” for wanting to come back.
Caspi noted that just three weeks ago, the IDF found some of the largest volume of Hezbollah weapons in any one place in southern Lebanon inside a tall Lebanese tower that had overlooked her house from less than a kilometer away.
She and her children realize that they could have been Hezbollah’s quick and easy victims in an October 7-style invasion.
Pressed further then about why she wanted to return, she acknowledged that before the war, her residence was worth around NIS 5 million and that now she could not sell it if she wanted to.
So sometimes economic realities dictate that people may come back, even if they still feel unsafe about Hezbollah and the future.
Kiryat Shmonah’s numbers in percentages are less bad – “only” around 400 out of 7,000 structures received direct hits by Hezbollah.
But in terms of the quantity of structures which must be rebuilt, this is a staggering four times the number of Metula.
And many of these structures are larger and more complex than a small house.
Kriyat Shomanh Engineer Amsalem Shimon rattled off the names of several schools which had direct hits from Hezbollah, rebuilding projects which will be more expensive and complex than a house.
The Post visited some of these schools and found the damage to be substantial.
Then there is damage to even larger structures, like the hole in the ceiling of the Kiryat Shmona Nehemiah Mall, which the Post witnessed.
The only store open in the mall was the pharmacy, one of a short list of “essential” stores, including a few food stores, which are still open in the otherwise shuttered city.
Kfar Giladi and some other villages which had fewer direct hits have had a trickle of returnees, said Candice Ormerod.
Omerod showed the Post a hit to the village’s well-known hotel and described hits and fires around many parts of the village which have changed the landscape, but at least do not prevent the residents from returning.
In that light, about 30 residents have come back to join around another 25 of the village security team who stayed there throughout the war.
But those numbers are still tiny compared to the 1000 or so people living in Kfar Giladi before the war.
Like Caspi from Metula, Omerod is also struggling with her future of whether to stay in Kfar Giladi or move elsewhere as she balances wanting to be with her daughter and the economic realities of owning a residence in a village which suddenly has become less desirable.
In short, the Post found that almost no one has returned to the North, families will not return before the summer/fall, if at all, a delay in building safe rooms could also hold up people returning, residents are worried about Hezbollah attacking both after the 60 days and in a few years, and many residents have made new lives in areas where they spent the last 14 months.
If Israel wants to save the northern border cities and villages, it will be a monumental, long-term, complex, and creative effort.
English (US) ·