Lebanese border villagers say Israeli shells won't push them off their land
Published: 04:11 PM,Nov 02,2023 | EDITED : 08:11 PM,Nov 02,2023
Chadia Kaddouh, looks on as she shows her house that was destroyed by what she said was an Israeli drone attack, amidst tension between Israel and Hezbollah, in Yater, on Wednesday. — Reuters
YATER: Residents of Lebanese border village of Yater said they would rebuild their town once clashes between Hezbollah and Israel end, saying Israel's shelling of their homes would not push them off their land.
Heavily armed Hezbollah has been engaged in daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces along the frontier since war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
Several homes in Yater, some seven kilometres from the Israeli-Lebanese border, lost windows and walls during Israeli shelling, pushing some residents to flee north while hardening the determination of others to stay put.
'I'm convinced now that we will never leave this land,' said Hiba, a 28-year-old mother whose home was hit by an Israeli shell on Sunday evening.
She and her five-year-old son were out visiting a relative when their home was hit.
'We were supposed to be here when this shell hit. This house has civilians, it has a child, it wasn't an abandoned home,' Hiba said.
Hiba said her son was collecting rocks to rebuild the house.
Fires caused by Israeli shelling in south Lebanon have burned some 40,000 olive trees and torched hundreds of square km (miles) of land, dealing a serious blow to a major Lebanese crop, the agriculture minister said.
Fires on Lebanon's side of the border have flared daily since Hezbollah and Israel began exchanging fire last month after war between Israel and Hamas erupted.
'Forty-thousand trees mean 40,000 histories. People are connected to olives spiritually. Our ancestors planted them, and we are losing them today,' Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan said.
He accused Israel of starting the fires by using shells containing white phosphorous to destroy wooded areas which Hezbollah fighters - who began firing into Israel in support of Hamas in what has become the worst flare-up of border hostilities since a 2006 war - could use as cover.
The Israeli army denied the accusation and said the types of smoke-screen shell it uses do not contain white phosphorus.
'The smoke-screen shells containing white phosphorus in the (Israeli military) are not intended or used for setting fire, and any claim that these shells are used for that cause is baseless,' an army spokesperson said.
Agriculture ministry data showed some 130 fires, in 60 villages and their surroundings, have been recorded during the fighting. 'These olives have not been harvested yet, meaning we lost the trees and the season,' Hajj Hassan said.
Heavily armed Hezbollah has been engaged in daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces along the frontier since war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
Several homes in Yater, some seven kilometres from the Israeli-Lebanese border, lost windows and walls during Israeli shelling, pushing some residents to flee north while hardening the determination of others to stay put.
'I'm convinced now that we will never leave this land,' said Hiba, a 28-year-old mother whose home was hit by an Israeli shell on Sunday evening.
She and her five-year-old son were out visiting a relative when their home was hit.
'We were supposed to be here when this shell hit. This house has civilians, it has a child, it wasn't an abandoned home,' Hiba said.
Hiba said her son was collecting rocks to rebuild the house.
Fires caused by Israeli shelling in south Lebanon have burned some 40,000 olive trees and torched hundreds of square km (miles) of land, dealing a serious blow to a major Lebanese crop, the agriculture minister said.
Fires on Lebanon's side of the border have flared daily since Hezbollah and Israel began exchanging fire last month after war between Israel and Hamas erupted.
'Forty-thousand trees mean 40,000 histories. People are connected to olives spiritually. Our ancestors planted them, and we are losing them today,' Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan said.
He accused Israel of starting the fires by using shells containing white phosphorous to destroy wooded areas which Hezbollah fighters - who began firing into Israel in support of Hamas in what has become the worst flare-up of border hostilities since a 2006 war - could use as cover.
The Israeli army denied the accusation and said the types of smoke-screen shell it uses do not contain white phosphorus.
'The smoke-screen shells containing white phosphorus in the (Israeli military) are not intended or used for setting fire, and any claim that these shells are used for that cause is baseless,' an army spokesperson said.
Agriculture ministry data showed some 130 fires, in 60 villages and their surroundings, have been recorded during the fighting. 'These olives have not been harvested yet, meaning we lost the trees and the season,' Hajj Hassan said.