The two Israeli soldiers guarding the entrance waved us through the large, eclectic yellow gates familiar to Israeli kibbutzim, and we drove to Sasa, a village in the upper Western Galilee and a miniature model of northern Israel.
Five hundred people lived here in peacetime, and now only 13 remain, the rest under mandatory evacuation orders from the government.
In total, nearly 100,000 Israelis They were forced to leave their homes along the border and are now living in hotel rooms across the country.
At the top of the hill we walk carefully through metal barriers and caution tape, alert to what lies beyond: the south Lebanon, Hizb allahcontrolled by Lebanon, barely a kilometer in front.
The actual border itself is rarely visible, hidden behind hills, sometimes shown zigzagging along lines, and remains disputed 18 years after the last war, in 2006.
Metal barriers and warning tape due to its proximity to southern Lebanon
Under the UN resolution that followed the end of the conflict, a demilitarized buffer zone was agreed upon, between the UN Blue Line marking the unofficial border and the Litani River which runs between four and 20 kilometers from the Israeli border.
Hezbollah violated this, stationing its fighters and building positions close to Israeli territory. Just last September, when we were filming a report on the rising tensions of the time, I saw Hezbollah fighters just meters away from IDF soldiers along the border.
Israel points out that this is a clear violation of UN law and must be corrected, as it is being used to legitimize its daily bombing of Hezbollah in recent weeks. UN peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon are largely ineffective and powerless to intervene.
One of the kibbutz leaders, Yehuda Livni, stayed behind with his wife Angelica to protect the community and ensure that essential work, such as the final apple harvest, could still be done.
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Smoke from the explosion could be seen in the distance
“We did it with our Arab friends.”
“We recently finished picking every apple, and we did it with our Arab friends,” Angelica told me with a smile. “Three thousand tons!”
Northern Israel, unlike many parts of the country, is characterized by largely peaceful coexistence between Jews, Muslims and Christians. It's something they're proud of.
Yehuda then points to a hole in the orchard below, where a Hezbollah missile fell. The kibbutz, like many kibbutzim along the border, has been in the crosshairs almost daily since October 7.
The hall's windows flew open
A few weeks ago, the school hall took a direct hit with an anti-tank missile – the use of these weapons has become more regular since Israel pushed many Hezbollah fighters out of range of the guns, but unlike the missiles they fly in an arc. Anti-tank missiles have a flat trajectory and are therefore difficult to shoot down using the Iron Dome defense system. And they are accurate.
The hall is a mess. Windows were shattered, a heavy metal door was twisted as a result of the explosion, and smoke left traces on the walls. What would have happened if school had been open is not worth thinking about.
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An Israeli tank was “hit” in Hezbollah footage
“It's a small war”
Yehuda and Angelica have moved into their home a little further out of the line of fire. They sleep in a small, dark safe room on the ground floor, the window covered with armored covers and an emergency filtration system installed to give them clean air in the event of a chemical attack.
“There is a war because they shoot every day and we shoot, so there is a war in the north too, but it is not a big war, it is a small war,” says Yehuda.
Like many kibbutz residents, the Livnis are a little political and want peace with their Arab neighbors.
He wondered, “What would the future be like if all dreams of peace and dialogue ended?” Angelica asks. “I don't want to believe it's over.
“What can we do? What can I do to talk to them, to explain to the Palestinian people that we want to be together? That there can be two states you know, and we can help each other because there are a lot of smart people,” he said. “There are a lot of good people.” Why, why, why do we have to fight? “
Sarit Zahavi, founder and president of Alma Research Group
“The feeling is that we are being chased”
For many here, safety will not come with an end to the missile attacks, but must be more than that, a permanent change in the situation along the border.
“The feeling is that we are being hounded,” says Sarit Zehavi, founder and president of the Alma Research Group, an NGO that monitors and analyzes Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah wrote the plan that Hamas implemented, and it could happen again. Here, you hear war all the time.
He added: “We can no longer trust our understanding of the other party's intentions. We can only trust that the threat will be eliminated, and the threat posed by Hezbollah is greater than the threat posed by Hamas.”
Life cannot return until Hezbollah is defeated
If people here are undecided on whether they want a war to force the issue or for diplomacy to prevail, they are unanimously agreed on one thing: Life can only return after Hezbollah is removed, enough so that it no longer poses an immediate threat.
Hezbollah is believed to have a much larger and more sophisticated tunnel network than that of Hamas in Gaza. It extends deep under the hills surrounding the border, and appears meters away from Israeli villages.
Residents of northern Israel are now concerned that Hezbollah will cross the border, as Hamas did on October 7.
“I don't have any ideology about war or peace, I want the effective way,” Sarit told me. He added, “If we find a way to do it peacefully, that's fine. The problem is that Hezbollah will not do it.”
If you find any diplomatic solution that will remove the missiles from the homes of the Lebanese one by one and block all the tunnels one by one, fine.
He added, “If there is an international force that can do that, that's okay. But to date, that has not happened.”
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Hezbollah leader warns Israel
Hezbollah will remain very close to Israel's dissatisfaction
With many villages evacuated and the army already at war, some senior Israeli politicians and leaders believe that now is the right time to invade southern Lebanon. There would never be a better opportunity to change the dynamic once and for all, they say.
But a war with Hezbollah will be very difficult and bloody for Israel. Hezbollah is better armed and better trained than Hamas. Its fighters have recent combat experience in Syria, and its arsenal is believed to be more than 150,000 missiles, some of which can reach the southern tip of Israel and strike it accurately.
Hassan Nasrallah has been frank about where he will target: Israeli government buildings, the main airport outside Tel Aviv, and power and water plants. Such is its firepower, it would likely overwhelm the Iron Dome system.
If a ceasefire is reached in Gaza, Hezbollah may stop its attacks on Israel, but will remain on or near the border. Very close to Israel's satisfaction.
