AITARUN: Lebanese farmers went back to their village near the Israeli border to find that weeks of bombing had badly damaged houses and destroyed vehicles.
“What can I say? Israel has always been criminal, it has always targeted our houses,” said Abdallah, a Lebanese farmer, his face weary as he pointed to gaping holes in the walls of his two-storey home in Aitarun, just across from an Israeli military position.
Since Gaza war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.
Abdallah fled after the cross-border skirmishes began, and like others, timidly returned to inspect his home, under the incessant buzz of Israeli surveillance drones.
Few frontier residents said that they intended to stay, fearing renewed violence after the end of the four-day truce that began on Friday.
“My tractor was destroyed and also the van I used to take the children in the area to school,” said Abdallah, a father of six.
The ground around his house was strewn with shrapnel, and burnt fruit trees stood in the garden.
Across south Lebanon, houses with smashed walls, shattered windows or doors ripped off their hinges bear witness to the violence of recent weeks.
The cross-border exchanges have killed 109 people in Lebanon, at least 77 of them fighters and 14 civilians.
The International Organization for Migration says more than 55,000 people have fled their homes, mainly in south Lebanon, since the hostilities began.
Fatima Taha, 55, breathed a sigh of relief when she discovered her house in the village of Mais al-Jabal was mostly intact, with just a few broken windows.
“We came back when they announced the truce but everyone is afraid,” she said, picking lemons from a tree in her garden.
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers fired into the air to “frighten farmers” who were working on their land, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency.
Authorities have also warned farmers against harvesting their olives near the border, fearing the harmful effects of what Lebanon says is the Israeli use of the incendiary substance white phosphorus. — AFP
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