“I’m being taken from home to a cemetery”: Israelis refuse to evacuate
October 16, 2023
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After violence from the Gaza Strip spread to the Lebanese border with daily shootings and several deaths, Israel began evacuating 28 towns in the area. Many have already
After violence from the Gaza Strip spread to the Lebanese border with daily shootings and several deaths, Israel began evacuating 28 towns in the area. Many have already left, others have fled their homes today, and some are determined to stay to defend their communities and not show weakness to the enemy.
In the small village of Shlomi, less than two kilometers from the border, there are more open bomb shelters than residential buildings.
The vast majority of its 7,000 residents have fled their homes over the past week. as part of a sharp escalation in fighting along the border that marks the ninth straight day of cross-attacks and threatens to unleash an additional war front on top of the bloody conflict between Israel and Gaza militias.
“Alarms have been ringing for several days now, and there are constant suspicions of the presence of drones and terrorist infiltrations,” he explained to the publication. EFE Albert Cohen as his wife finishes loading suitcases into a car that will take them to a hotel in Jerusalem paid for by the government to encourage evacuations.
“I’m dejected,” he admitted, resentful of leaving home. scared of possible war with Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and the wound is still open from the Hamas massacre on October 7 last year.
Photo: EFE
Thus, Cohen became one of 10,000 Israelis who today complied with the army’s order to evacuate communities located within a radius of two kilometers from the border.
Meters from your house, a group of residents decided to stay in the storethe only business in town that remains open and whose owner refuses to close until he is forced to.
Sitting by the door and sipping beer, three men discuss details of the two previous wars with Lebanon, in 1982 and 2006. Soon after, they are joined by another, a Bedouin from a neighboring village, where the authorities have recommended evacuation and where they have not. There are open shops.
“We cannot leave the place where we were born and raised, where we remained for so many years of wars, so many worries, terrorists and missiles,” he said. EFE Hanania Goslan, 62, whose three sons were drafted into the army as reservists.
Leaving your home at such a time would be a sign of weakness towards Hezbollah: “I will not let my enemy feel that I am weak because I believe in our army and in our government.”
Photo: EFE
For another resident named Ahmoud, his priority is protecting his people and his community. Aramsha, where he lives, saw the deadliest incident since the border fighting began when an Islamic Jihad militia cell crossed the fence and clashed with a group of Israeli soldiers, leaving three injured.
“War can be felt in the air, smelled and heard,” Ahmoud said, while emphasizing the need to stay in his village to help the security forces: “From my house they only take me to the cemetery.”
Before ordering the evacuation and in response to the launch of anti-tank missiles from Lebanon, the army on October 15 ordered all populated areas within range Up to four kilometers of the border has turned into a closed military zone.
Walking through the populated areas of the area reveals dozens of armored vehicles, military ambulances and countless checkpoints manned by heavily armed soldiers.
The residential buildings in some of these settlements were occupied by combat-ready reservists, and some even had small camps.
Several neighbors consulted said that They had never seen such a military presence in the area.even during the 2006 war.
Photo: EFE
The border skirmish, which represents the highest peak in tensions since the conflict, began on Sunday last week, the day after surprise attack from Gaza Strip Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will provoke a new conflict in the region.
Since then, Hezbollah and Palestinian militias in southern Lebanon They fired dozens of shells towards Israel and attempted to penetrate border settlements. In response, the Israeli army bombed several targets, both of the Shia organization and other militias.
Until now, At least 17 people died as a result of these incidents.: 12 of them in Lebanon and five in Israel.
“We have a message to Iran and Hezbollah: don’t test us in the north. “Don’t repeat the mistakes of the past, because the price you will pay will be much worse,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened today after a Lebanese group fired a new anti-tank missile at Israel, which responded with artillery.
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