2023-12-22 07:19:00
In his small falafel restaurant in southern Lebanon, Hussein Mourtada prepares sandwiches for the rare customers, while an Israeli reconnaissance drone flies over his almost deserted border village.
“We work under bombs. A few days ago, a shell fell 200 meters from here, and shrapnel hit the front of the restaurant and the wall,” says the 60-year-old man with a beard. gray, showing the impacts of the shells.
“I hid behind the fridge in the restaurant,” he adds, frying the chickpea balls in boiling oil.
The sounds of bombing are clearly audible in his village of Kfar Kila, surrounded by olive trees. Most streets are deserted and houses have been completely destroyed by Israeli strikes in neighborhoods facing the nearby Galilee.
If a large part of the inhabitants have fled, Hussein Mourtada is determined to keep his restaurant open for the rare cars that pass, including ambulances.
In his neighborhood, only one grocery store also remains open.
“I serve food to everyone who is hungry, even those who cannot afford to pay,” says the man as he cuts tomatoes and pickles to serve a customer.
Since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza on October 7, pro-Iranian Hezbollah has launched attacks from southern Lebanon towards Israel to support its Palestinian ally.
In response, the Israeli army carries out daily strikes on border villages.
The violence, currently limited to border areas, has left more than 140 dead in Lebanon, including around a hundred Hezbollah fighters and at least 19 civilians including three journalists.
At least eleven people were killed on the Israeli side, including seven soldiers.
They also led to the forced displacement of more than 72,000 people in Lebanon, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
In a report published Tuesday, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) indicated that the conflict had led to “considerable material losses” affecting in particular homes, businesses, infrastructure and services in border villages.
“Economic activity and local businesses are either disrupted or have had to close or relocate,” the report adds.
“I’m not moving from here”
Hezbollah fighters have no visible presence in border villages.
At his service station at the entrance to the village of Taybé, Ali Mansour also waits for the rare customers who still dare to brave the daily bombings.
“As long as the bombings stay away, we work to earn our living,” says this fatalistic man in his fifties, his head covered by a black hood.
It shows the Israeli town of Misgav Am which faces his village, located almost two kilometers from the border and which is constantly flown over by Israeli reconnaissance drones.
On December 11, the local village leader was killed in an Israeli strike. A shell hit the 80-year-old man who was on his balcony.
In the neighboring village of Adaïssé, the small restaurant where Ahmad Tarrab, 23, worked, served burgers until last week.
“Since the start of the war, we have remained open. But the other day, Hussein, one of the employees, opened the restaurant, then we heard bombings,” says the young man with the full beard.
“A first shell fell in front of the restaurant and two others behind it. Hussein was injured in the leg,” he adds, pointing to the ground in front of the establishment littered with shrapnel and the broken sign.
Ahmad Tarrab subsequently decided to flee his village, which was now almost deserted.
Abbas Ali Baalbaki stayed but had to close his small printing press. On the main square of Adaïssé, opposite the husseiniyé (Shiite place of worship), he follows the information on his phone on the villages affected by the bombings.
“Even if the war lasts ten months or a year, I’m not moving from here,” he says, phlegmatic, puffing on his cigarette.
22/12/2023 06:18:18 – Kfar Kila (Liban) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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