Lebanon: Israel-Hezbollah border clashes displace thousands

DW (English)

Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, and the Israeli Army have been exchanging fire since the Israel-Hamas war began, putting civilian lives at risk. Fear of death at the border grows as a larger conflict lingers. DW reports from the frontline in southern Lebanon.

Transcript

00:00 Tensions are escalating along the border between Lebanon and Israel.

00:04 We're heading south to take a closer look.

00:08 Smoke in the vicinity indicates cross-border shelling.

00:12 The closer we get, the greater the danger.

00:16 Israeli warplanes are in action overhead.

00:20 This market in the border town of Bint Jbeil would normally be bustling,

00:24 but since October 8, few shops remain open.

00:29 Ali is among those who decided not to evacuate.

00:35 This bakery is my only source of money.

00:40 If I close it because of a war or for any other reason,

00:43 I will be jobless and I won't be able to feed my family.

00:48 I don't want to wait for anyone to help me,

00:50 so I decided not to leave my shop, despite the situation,

00:54 to support my family.

01:00 Further south, Israeli military posts come into view.

01:04 Right behind me is an Israeli military post that came under attack many times.

01:09 For weeks, Lebanon has been an undeclared second front for Israel.

01:13 Now the cross-border shelling is increasing in both scale and intensity.

01:18 This has forced tens of thousands of Lebanese to flee their homes,

01:22 but also puts the lives of those who decided to stay at risk.

01:26 It is the olive harvest season, but for farmers and the neighbouring towns,

01:31 olive picking is particularly dangerous.

01:36 When the shelling starts, we leave the upper floor of the house

01:39 and we go down to this underground hideout.

01:43 Olive picking is our lifeblood, we are farmers,

01:46 and we have no other means to survive,

01:48 so we will never leave our lands where we grew up.

01:54 Abbas is no exception.

01:56 Other farmers in the area are also staying to look after their livestock,

02:01 despite the threat posed by the conflict.

02:04 We send our children to school,

02:05 and we are always afraid that every blast could have hit their bus or their classroom.

02:09 Why don't you leave to a safer place?

02:14 The resistance is a culture.

02:16 If we evacuate our children, they might perceive this as a defeat,

02:20 and defeat is not part of our vocabulary.

02:26 But unlike Abbas and Ali, more than 45,000 people have left their hometowns.

02:32 Almost half have fled to the coastal city of Tyre.

02:36 Hundreds are taking refuge in these classrooms.

02:40 We lack a lot of essentials.

02:42 We've been here for a month now,

02:44 my wife is still washing clothes with her bare hands.

02:48 We must buy cooking gas because there's no electricity.

02:52 We're living in hard conditions,

02:54 but it's better than being near the shelling and risking our lives.

03:01 The local crisis management team is working round the clock

03:04 to take care of the daily influx of refugees.

03:07 The needs are big, but resources are limited.

03:12 If we don't receive aid and support from the international organizations,

03:17 we will not be able to help any of the refugees.

03:20 We have the human resources and the volunteers,

03:23 but we don't have the means to provide aid to these people.

03:29 Lebanon's biggest fear is that a large-scale war with Israel

03:32 could destroy its already struggling economy.

03:36 Campaigns against the war are evident in Beirut.

03:39 Meanwhile, all eyes are on the southern border.

03:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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