In Israel’s north, a slow-burning war is raging with Hezbollah

Asiya, a Druze host in Western Galilee, Israel, shares her fears and struggles amid ongoing border conflicts.

“War is bad for everyone. And we live in constant fear,” says Asiya, who lives in a village near the Israeli-Lebanon border. Hailing from Israel’s minority Druze community, Asiya hosts tourists and visiting delegations at her home in Yanuh-Jat for lunch. She offers traditional Druze food in a large house on a hill. From her balcony, the heights on the Lebanese-Israel border that have been on fire for six months are visible.

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“After the war began, business was down. We get practically no tourists these days,” said Asiya, a mother of three who lost her husband a few years ago.

Ever since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the latter’s subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s northern border has seen a slow-burning war between the Israeli forces and Shia and Palestinian militias on the other side. Southern Lebanon is the stronghold of Hezbollah, the powerful, Iran-aligned Shia militia. Hamas’s Qassem Brigades and the Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades also have some limited presence in southern Lebanon. These groups have launched multiple rocket attacks into northern Israel since October 7 “in solidarity” with Palestinians and Israel has carried out hundreds of retaliatory strikes in Lebanon.

Yanuh-Jat, which was hit by rockets from Lebanon in April 2023, has relatively been quiet in the latest round of conflict. But Asiya is worried that if the tensions escalate on the border, her village and its over 6,000 residents, mostly Druze, would get caught in the war. Like most houses on Israel’s border, Asiya’s house also has a bunker. She says she has 15 seconds to take shelter in the bunker once the alarm goes off in the event of a rocket attack.

Between October 7 and March 15, Hezbollah, and other militias in Lebanon and Israel exchanged at least 4,733 attacks across the border, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a non-profit. Of these, Israel accounted for 83% of the attacks, totalling 3,952 incidents, while Hezbollah, Amal Movement and Palestinian militias launched 781 attacks.

Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, has stated that it would continue attacking Israeli positions as long as the Gaza war continues. On Wednesday, Hezbollah launched a rocket and missile attack at a military facility in northern Israel, wounding at least 14 soldiers. The militant group said it attacked in retaliation against an Israeli air strike that killed Hezbollah members.