Lebanon’s southern villagers confront Israeli soldiers as they fight to return

Outside the southern Lebanese border village of Aitaroun, residents stood on an earthen barricade overlooking their homes and olive groves. Below, Israeli soldiers stood on high alert, with snipers ready to shoot anyone who dared to cross. An elderly woman named Fatima Jaafar bravely climbed down from the barricade, followed by a young man waving a Hezbollah flag. Seconds later, Israeli gunfire rang out, and the two quickly retreated, narrowly avoiding being hit.

Aitaroun is one of several villages where Israeli forces remain stationed despite a January 26 withdrawal deadline stipulated by a US-brokered ceasefire agreement. Israel has accused Lebanon of not fully implementing the terms of the agreement, while the US has declared that the agreement will remain in effect until February 18. Despite the continued presence of Israeli troops, residents in many villages across southern Lebanon are determined to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli orders.

Near the barricade in Aitaroun, a group of people camped around a bonfire, saying they had been there for three days when Middle East Eye visited on Tuesday. One of them was a 51-year-old woman who asked to be called Umm Hassan. “I have a house in Aitaroun. I have chickens and goats. I live a very happy life,” she told Middle East Eye. “This is our land. When I die, my children will come; my grandchildren will come,” she said. “No one leaves their land, especially next to this neighbor who wants to occupy it.”

Like many in Aitaroun, Umm Hassan holds US citizenship and speaks with a clear American accent. She said her heart is in Aitaroun, the village of her ancestors and where she has lived most of her life. “Aitaroun is a very special place with very special nature,” Umm Hassan said, describing the fertile farmlands and the “paradise” of ancient oak forests where she used to take her goats to graze and picnic with friends. But she said much of the land is now gone. “They are trying to make a desert here, to make it uninhabitable.”

As Umm Hassan spoke, an Israeli drone hovered overhead. She said the drones have been firing on the crowds and pointed to black spots on the ground where they had struck. Later on Tuesday, according to 28-year-old medic on the scene, Mohammed Salman, Israeli sniper fire wounded six civilians and one Lebanese soldier attempting to enter Aitaroun. He told Middle East Eye that the victims – some of them elderly and in critical condition – had been shot in the face, chest, and back. He added that one of them was a US citizen, the biggest backer of Israel.

An elderly cleric, Nasser Abu Alivi, stood firmly nearby in front of the stationed UN peacekeepers, leaning on his cane. “The people of this town are determined,” Alivi said. “Families want to find and bury their loved ones.” He added that many of the dead are still buried under the rubble. “Israel kills just to kill so people lose hope and leave. But people are not afraid. They will stay here, even in the cold nights and the attacks,” he said.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israeli attacks on citizens trying to enter villages have left 24 dead and more than 150 injured, including nine children and one paramedic. Similar scenes to Aitaroun have played out in other villages along the Lebanese-Israeli border. In Ayta al-Shaab, about 15 minutes from Aitaroun, a group of women chanted “Israel get out.” They stood behind a line of Lebanese soldiers and another earthen barricade, with Israeli forces still stationed in their village.

Among them was 10-year-old Fatima Daou, wearing the yellow and green colors of a Hezbollah flag. She stood with her three younger siblings, holding a large picture of their father, a Hezbollah fighter killed in the fighting. They were waiting to retrieve his body. On January 26, five people were killed while trying to enter Ayta al-Shaab, according to the Lebanese health ministry. One of them was Moussa Al-Aalawi. 18-year-old Mohammed Hammad told Middle East Eye that he was shot in front of two young children as he sat with friends near the Ayta al-Shaab barricade.

He said Israelis also killed a woman named Amal, an Arabic teacher in the village, as she tried to enter. “They shot her in the head. She died on the spot.” Hammad, who used to work at a gas station in Ayta al-Shaab, recalled seeing Amal often. “Everyone knew her,” he said. He said he stayed in the village during the 60-day ceasefire when Israeli forces were “blowing things up and bombing houses.” Since the November 27 agreement came into effect, Lebanon has recorded at least 823 Israeli violations of the ceasefire. Israel has said its attacks have targeted Hezbollah military infrastructure and what it says are still “unresolved” “threats.” “Now, everything is destroyed,” Hammad said.

In the neighboring village of Maroun al-Ras, crowds gathered outside the barbed wire. They were not deterred by the Israeli soldiers holding guns just meters away. “We are not afraid,” said 51-year-old Hoda Jibashi, who came with her daughter from the southern village of Aytit to support the residents of Maroun al-Ras. “This is our right, this is our land. But since Sunday, they have been shooting at us with tanks and guns,” said her 29-year-old daughter, Noura Daka.

Daka said the Israelis have become “more aggressive” in recent days, pushing them further away from their village each day. She pulled out her phone to show a video she took on Sunday. An Israeli tank was driving towards her and the crowd around her. According to the Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour, Israeli forces arrested four people from Maroun al-Ras on Wednesday. Daka, who was present at the time, said they were mostly older residents who had entered the village through a path unseen by Israeli forces. Daka said one 28-year-old man was still being held. “We will hold our ground until they leave, even if they postpone the ceasefire until February or next year,” Daka said.

Lebanese security officials are concerned that Israel plans to occupy five strategic hilltop areas in southern Lebanon after February 18, a fear that has been heightened after Israeli forces installed heavy surveillance equipment in the area, The National reported on Thursday. Back in Aitaroun, as an Israeli drone circled overhead, those gathered at the barricade shared the story of Najwa, a woman in her 70s who refused to leave her home during the war. “I knew her very well,” said Salman. Salman and his rescue team would visit her regularly, bringing her food and water. One time, they convinced her to leave for her safety – but she returned quickly.

“I swear to God, she walked back,” he said. Salman said that after the November 27 ceasefire began, every time they tried to reach Aitaroun to visit Najwa, Israeli forces would fire on them, preventing them from entering for 30 days. When they finally got in on December 27, Salman found Najwa dead. He said she had three bullets in her chest and was covered in bruises as if she had been beaten or trampled. “Her death was very painful for us because she was an old woman,” said Umm Hassan, who also noted that Najwa was a US citizen. “Imagine if that was your mother. It’s unbelievable… just because she didn’t want to leave her home.”