Northern Israeli residents split over need for war to destroy Hezbollah

Families struggling to plan for uncertain future as tensions mount on border with Lebanon

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Lior Shelef lights cigarette after cigarette in the smoking room of a new five-star hotel in the north of Israel. Despite the peaceful, luxury surroundings, he and his family are going through a personal catastrophe.

Mr Shelef’s wife and children were among the roughly 120,000 Israelis evacuated by the government after October 7 from areas surrounding the Gaza Strip and the northern border with Lebanon and Syria.

Their fate is fast becoming one of the most pressing political issues in Israel. Housing them in hotels across the country is a massive financial burden on the state, takes a huge psychological toll on the evacuees and, in the eyes of many citizens, is an unacceptable humiliation at the hands of Israel’s enemies, who in the course of a day emptied large swathes of a country that was supposed to be a safe haven for Jews.

In the south, there are hopes that people are on the cusp of returning, as Israel continues to damage Hamas’s capabilities in Gaza.

There is no such hope for people in the north, where Israel and Hezbollah – a militant group far more capable than Hamas and in possession of about 150,000 rockets and missiles – trade increasingly aggressive fire, adding to fears a catastrophic war is on the horizon.

An alert pops up on Mr Shelef’s phone showing another rocket attack on Snir, the kibbutz close to the occupied Golan Heights in northern Israel where his family has lived for decades.

Mr Shelef, an army reservist, keeps a particularly close eye on the situation because he is part of a small security force made up of residents who have stayed to guard Snir in case of a major escalation.

It is a dangerous responsibility – Mr Shelef’s friend was killed by Hezbollah anti-tank missiles in a neighbouring village in January – but he is happy to do it.

“I get to see the kids whenever I can,” he says. “It’s not on a weekly basis, if everything is sort of OK then maybe once every two weeks or so.

“I love my country and I love my army. I can admit that most reservists are excited when they put their uniform on again.”

But as the months drag on, he cannot help but think the situation is unsustainable.

The security team on his kibbutz, whose income relies heavily on agriculture, is struggling to harvest as fast as usual.

The kibbutz faces a far worse existential threat because of the evacuation.

“We built a new neighbourhood in our kibbutz about a year ago, for 23 new families who only recently came to the community,” Mr Shelef says.

“Now most of them don’t want to come back. They want to sell their homes.

“The whole idea of the kibbutz movement is to build new settlements on the borderline to grow Israel. Now it will be harder to do that, [which is] exactly what Hezbollah wants. [Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah] now has a buffer zone inside Israel.”

“Even keeping the soldiers in shape for that long is hard,” Mr Shelef adds.