With a fragile peace now emerging in Lebanon, life is beginning to return to normal in many parts of the country. Yet, for those living on the border, peace is seemingly on hold.
“The situation here is still the same as before the ceasefire,” says Pierre, a schoolteacher in Rmeish, a small Lebanese town just 2km from the Israeli border. “The Israeli warning is still in place, and they are still bombing around us,” he added.
“We still have to stay in our homes in Rmeish, we can’t go to our neighbouring villages, Israel is still prohibiting us from entering them.”
In a statement posted on X on Thursday, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military spokesperson, prohibited residents of 62 villages near the border from returning to their homes, stating that Israel “does not intend to target you and therefore you are prohibited at this stage from returning”.
Israel has also prohibited residents from moving south of the Litani River until its withdrawal is complete, however, hundreds of thousands of displaced have already begun returning to the south. For those from the border, return won’t come so easily.
Miriam – whose name has been changed – fled from her home in Taybeh over a year ago. She remains displaced in the north and is still unable to return home due to the Israeli exclusion order.
Reminiscing about her life before the war, the village festivities and the cold winter nights when she would sit around the fire with her family eating chestnuts, she laments the loss of her home.
“My home is in a poor condition, the Israelis occupied it and damaged everything inside. This was the home of my dreams, I spent 12 years building it with my husband. The memories have disappeared, it is heartbreaking really,” she told The New Arab.
“We lost our homes, our dreams, we lost everything for nothing, I pray that this nightmare is over” she says, but “I am not that glad about the ceasefire because we still can’t return to Taybeh”.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Friday that Israel is enforcing an exclusion policy near its positions with shelling and gunfire.
|
|
Three journalists covering the return of the displaced to Khiam near the border were shot and wounded by Israeli forces on Wednesday.
Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah parliamentarian, accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreements by “attacking those returning to the border villages”.
According to residents of Rmeish, Israel launched several shells next to a group of people who were trying to enter the neighbouring village of Aita Shaab from Rmeish, in doing so damaging the town’s supermarket and a nearby home.
Over the weekend, France said that Israel had violated the ceasefire 52 times in just 24 hours. A day later, Hezbollah fired rockets that landed in an open area, highlighting the fragility of the truce.
‘We considered ourselves truly besieged’
In an arid plain, cupped by low rising hills sits the small town of Rmeish. The agricultural settlement of 10,000, an oasis of calm, sat in the eye of a storm of metal and fire that engulfed Lebanon over the last year. However, Rmeish has emerged from the war largely unscathed, unlike the Gaza-fied husks of neighbouring towns.
The settlement, overwhelmingly Christian, “refused to be involved in the war”, and its residents actively prevented Hezbollah from taking up positions inside the town, according to Hassan Kotob, a Lebanese analyst and manager of the Lebanese Center for Research.
In March, after Hezbollah attempted to set up rocket positions in the settlement, residents rang the church bells and took to the streets to oppose an action that they thought could endanger their community.
Yet, many other Christian towns were heavily targeted during the conflict.
Ain Ebel, a small Christian village, just 10 minutes’ drive north of Rmeish, quickly emptied when calls started coming in telling residents to evacuate immediately. Many of those displaced from Ain Ebel fled to Rmeish.
“In the towns where most of the people left, Hezbollah was able to station rocket launchers, and those from the town obviously were unable to stop them,” says Kotob. “As a result, Israel targeted these places.”
For many in Rmeish, like Pierre, this was a very prescient fear. “We decided to stay in our village and resist outside influence, because we were afraid if we left then we would lose our homes,” he said.
“Of course, we also were afraid of being besieged, and running out of food, fuel and flour.”
Over October, as Israel’s land invasion progressed, the town quickly found itself enveloped by a battle taking place around their homes and above their heads.
“We would watch the rockets arc above us constantly, landing in the towns and fields around us, but thank God nothing hit the heart of the town, the sound of planes, drones and bombing was constant,” says Najib, a resident of Rmeish.
“We considered ourselves truly besieged, the roads are difficult and we have been reliant on supply convoys from the army and UNIFIL to bring necessities to the town.”
Although the army, UNIFIL, and the World Food Programme (WFP) were able to supply to the town through sporadic, and risky relief convoys from Tyre, prices rose significantly.
Milad Al-Alam, the Mayor of Rmeish, told The New Arab, that the price for basic goods, like chicken and vegetables, had tripled due to the difficulty in getting goods into the town.
“These price increases are only compounding our economic problems,” says Milad. “80% of our economy is based on agriculture, mostly the farming of olives and tobacco. Only a third of the residents have land close enough to the town to reach safely, most of us can’t access our land because it’s too dangerous.”
With the war raging in the fields and orchards around the Rmeish, many residents have had their livelihoods destroyed.
When Najib took the risk to visit his olive grove he found it destroyed and his olives burnt. “I was only able to harvest very few, all the lands around them were damaged. What can we do, no one in Rmeish has been able to harvest.”
|
|
A fragile ceasefire and uncertain future
With the ceasefire seemingly held together by a shoestring, there remain fears that Lebanon could return to a state of bitter conflict.
“God willing the ceasefire will hold,” Pierre told The New Arab. “There is still chaos at the moment, the Lebanese army is not ready to move into Rmeish yet. I have only seen one jeep with two soldiers, but they still haven’t returned to the positions they held before the war.”
Yet, even in the event of the peace holding, uncertainty about the future is pervasive.
Residents in Rmeish told The New Arab that they haven’t had any information from the government about the prospects for reconstruction, although they have been provided resident forms that they are required to fill in to officially document their losses.
The Minister of Agriculture Hajj Hassan, speaking to reporters on Friday, said “compensation is possible. We are in discussions with international organisations, and are considering reallocating funds to address emergency needs”.
However, significant questions remain over reconstruction, as both Lebanon and the international climate in 2024 appear far less conducive to major rebuilding efforts compared to 2006.
“We are really relying on the Lebanese state to help us,” says Pierre. “We need aid from the Gulf, from America and from Europe. I pray to God that they will help us.”
Cian Ward is a journalist based in Beirut, covering conflict, migration, and humanitarian issues
Follow him on X: @CP__Ward
