Eyal Adom,<\/span> head of security for an Israeli community on the border with Lebanon, has a clear vision for the land just a few hundred meters away.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to occupy,\u201d he told The Intercept. \u201cYes, occupy, the word nobody likes. I want to occupy southern Lebanon. Move all the Arabs from there, up to the Litani River.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re sitting in the command and control center\u00a0<\/strong>in Moshav Netu\u2019a, a village so close to the U.N.-brokered \u201cBlue Line\u201d separating Israel and Lebanon that one can see the physical barrier from the windows of many homes. Here, amid a temporary pause in fighting between the U.S.\u2013Israeli alliance and Iran, there\u2019s no sense of peace.<\/p>\n Under muddied terms for the two-week ceasefire<\/a> with Iran, Israel has kept fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, launching an all-out war on the country\u2019s armed elements and civilians alike. The Israeli military bombed<\/a> villages and ordered more than 1 million Lebanese civilians to evacuate<\/a> from\u00a0the south, territory that is often viewed as Hezbollah\u2019s stronghold due to its significant Shia Muslim population and weapons caches.\u00a0Israel blew up<\/a> bridges linking the north and the south of Lebanon. In defiance of previous ceasefire conditions set in November 2024<\/a>, Hezbollah forces that were supposed to retreat north have remained in the south, and Israeli forces continued to hold five \u201cstrategic<\/a>\u201d hilltops in the north, accumulating more than 10,000<\/a> total ceasefire violations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Arabs\u2019 only motivation to stop fighting is if you take their land.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n For the residents of Netu\u2019a, Hezbollah is a problem to be solved, and one to fix with military power.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Arabs\u2019 only motivation to stop fighting is if you take their land,\u201d Adom said. \u201cYou kill them, it doesn\u2019t matter. You hurt them, it doesn\u2019t matter. Nothing matters. Only taking territories. This is the only thing that matters to them.\u201d<\/p>\n At least seven Netu\u2019a residents told The Intercept that they see the eviction of Lebanese civilians as the only sure way to prevent their own displacement. After October 7, 2023, fearing a follow-on attack by Hezbollah, the Israeli government evacuated kibbutzim and other settlements near its border with Lebanon, including Netu\u2019a, scattering families in hotels across the country.<\/p>\n The evacuation was \u201clike a piece of gum being pulled apart,\u201d said Oranit Manasseh, a mother of four who lives in Shtula, another kibbutz on Israel\u2019s border with Lebanon. \u201cThat is what happened to our community, day after day that we were living in hotels away from the kibbutz.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Manasseh and her children have since been able to return to their home, which was not damaged during the evacuation. When she spoke to The Intercept, the family was staying at a villa in Shtula that would normally host tourists for holidays like Passover but has been sitting largely empty since October 8, 2023, with few Israelis wishing to visit the north for a vacation with incoming missile fire.<\/p>\n Manasseh\u2019s hope, she told The Intercept, is that the Israeli military \u201cdepopulate the south, get rid of Hezbollah, and keep the terrorists out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDepopulate the south, get rid of Hezbollah, and keep the terrorists out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Israel\u2019s actions suggest it\u2019s headed in that direction. On Wednesday, in the span of 10 minutes<\/a>, Israel struck Lebanon more than 100 times, killing at least 300 people<\/a>. This was the deadliest single incident since the end of Lebanon\u2019s civil war in 1990. According to reporting<\/a> from the Financial Times and confirmed by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, more than 100 women, children, and elderly were killed in the strikes, including two journalists and four Lebanese army soldiers.<\/p>\n Part of the justification for Israel\u2019s war on Hezbollah is the view that it is the only way to establish a security buffer to protect<\/a> communities in the north situated on Israel\u2019s border with Lebanon.<\/p>\n Much like October 7th catalyzed Israeli society\u2019s calls for the war on Gaza \u2014 in which Israel killed<\/a>, according to conservative estimates, 70,000 Palestinians<\/a> and over 700 more since the oft-violated ceasefire went into effect last year\u00a0\u2014 there are calls to reduce<\/a> southern Lebanon to rubble.<\/p>\n They either \u201ccrush Hezbollah so that the Lebanese government can disarm, and keep the south free of terrorists,\u201d said another member of Netu\u2019a\u2019s security patrol, or\u00a0they will have to evacuate again in the future, and it will rip their communities apart.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s border communities are often referred to as the \u201cperiphery.\u201d Looking out from Netu\u2019a, one can see a string of Israeli military outposts situated on the Blue Line, which the U.N. established in 2000, erecting a border wall like the one that cordons off the West Bank. Far from the metropolitan centers of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, these communities occupy a particular place in Israeli politics, and according to residents who spoke with The Intercept in these communities, there is a consensus that they feel forgotten in the wake of October 7.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the government doesn\u2019t do enough for this area. Israel is like a golden cage,\u201d Manasseh said. \u201cYou love it, but we are not safe here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n These \u201cperiphery\u201d residents are working to leverage their political influence to end the \u201cHezbollah problem,\u201d partly by staying in their communities during this war instead of evacuating, forcing the Israeli military to either protect them or admit they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n
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