Inside the abandoned homes Israel wants back as it prepares for war in Lebanon

Kibbutz Hanita, Israel: Dishes are still on the kitchen table and the fridge has a few jars on the shelves. The stairway up to the first floor is full of broken glass, and what used to be the bedroom is in ruins.

The bedroom’s glass door lies in the middle of the room. There’s dust everywhere but above us blue skies where the roof used to be.

Luckily, the old couple that lived here had already been evacuated from their home in Kibbutz Hanita when it took a direct hit from a rocket fired by Hezbollah.

An Israeli soldier in a house damaged by an Hezbollah anti-tank missile near the Lebanon border in Kibbutz Hanita, northern Israel.Credit: Bloomberg

But their son, Erez, stayed behind and has been protecting the kibbutz since Hezbollah began launching daily anti-tank missiles, rockets and drones in support of Hamas. More than 9000 such attacks have been detected since October 8 last year.

“Most of the families with children left the same day. A week later, the whole kibbutz was evacuated,” Erez told the London Telegraph during a visit. (Erez’s last name could not be disclosed for security reasons.)

What used to be a lively community on Israel’s border with Lebanon has, like dozens of other kibbutzim and villages, become a ghost town.

An Israeli family house on the Lebanon border seen from Kibbutz Hanita.Credit: Bloomberg

These are the towns and villages Israel wants back for its people – and war inside Lebanon appears to be one of the ways they are considering reaching that goal.

The Israeli prime minister’s security cabinet announced this week that the objectives of the war it initially launched inside Gaza to eliminate Hamas now included “returning the residents of the north securely to their homes”.

“The current situation will not continue. This requires a change in the balance of forces on our northern border,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The march towards war may have been accelerated when thousands of pagers – thought to be planted by Israel – exploded in the pockets and hands of Hezbollah fighters across the country. The terror group has promised revenge.

The roughly 700 residents of Kibbutz Hanita were evacuated within a week of October 7, including Erez’s parents, his wife and three daughters, along with 60,000 other Israelis along the northern border.

Erez, the kibbutz’s security team commander, recalled how he rushed people out of their beds when Hamas launched its terror attack on Israel as he feared Hezbollah would do the same on Israel’s northern border.

Hanita was created in 1938, several years before the state of Israel was founded. Erez, whose grandparents settled in the kibbutz in 1942, was born here and is adamant about the need to defend northern Israel from Hezbollah. Even if it means being at constant risk of attacks and sleeping in a bomb shelter.

Hezbollah has fired missiles, mortars, rockets and explosive drones into northern Israel almost daily, prompting Israel to respond with its own fire. Credit: Bloomberg

A month after the kibbutz was evacuated, soldiers began removing rotten food from all the homes which had attracted countless animals. But cats and dogs were still lurking in Erez’s parents’ home, searching for any food left behind.

Some 20 rockets have hit the kibbutz so far, but for every house they hit, another 10 are impacted by the blast, according to Erez.

The silence is deafening, apart from the occasional loud booms in the background.

And due to Hanita’s proximity to the border, Hezbollah attacks have become part of daily life. A few metres from the community’s kindergarten stands the remnants of a metal swing.

It was destroyed when five Iranian-made suicide drones hit the kibbutz last month, all within five minutes.

One of the drones also landed in the kindergarten itself, starting a fire. Drone shrapnel has left clear marks on buildings nearby.

A sign warns of the threat from Hezbollah missiles near the Lebanon border in Kibbutz Hanita.Credit: Bloomberg

Another drone landed in the playground, leaving a big hole in the ground. As Erez described the attacks, The Telegraph asked how much time we had to run for shelter if a siren went off. After all, Lebanon is just a few hundred metres from where we stood.

“The siren and the explosion come at the same time. We don’t have any time,” he responded.

Outside Erez’s parents’ house, Lieutenant Colonel Yarden, an IDF division operations officer, explained how the army dealt with daily attacks.

For the first two months, Palestinians from southern Lebanon tried to infiltrate the kibbutz three times.

And members of Hezbollah have tried to infiltrate the border into northern Israel at least seven times since October 8. “All of them were killed,” Yarden said. (His last name could not be disclosed for security reasons.)

Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, has told both Lloyd Austin, his American counterpart, and President Joe Biden’s senior advisor that the possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to “tie itself” to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict.

“Therefore, the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action,” Gallant said in yet another signal that Israel is preparing to launch a full-scale war against Hezbollah.

Yarden said the army was ready for a ground invasion of Lebanon if the government gave the green light. “Until that time, we are holding the line.”

The Telegraph, London