After three weeks away from their homes, residents of the conflict line in the north who were evacuated realize that a return home is nowhere in sight, and the conversation in the lobby of the Leonardo Hotel in Tiberias deals only with the question of the day after.
Construction of Kfar Maccabiah to evacuate residents from the north and south // Moshe Ben Simhon
In the parliament that has formed, there are veteran farmers who are planning their return home, as well as young families who find it difficult to see how they will raise their children under the threat of Hezbollah. "The incident in the south dropped my token," says Noam Wolf, who was evacuated from his home in Metula.
Just a few days ago, his third daughter was born. The equipment purchased for the birth remained in Metula, and his wife Limor went to the delivery room from the Leonardo Hotel, to which the residents of the colony were evacuated. "I would go back, but my wife and girls are stressed. We've been living this movie for 20 years, in 2006 we didn't evacuate, but I never imagined thousands of terrorists crossing the fence like in the south. We thought of some terrorists," he says.
Car hit by an anti-tank missile in Metula, photo: Car hit by an anti-tank missile in Metula
Wolf stresses: "If they don't wipe out Hezbollah in Lebanon, how will we return? Shall we return to the situation where they enter your home and murder? We will rebuild the community, but if the state doesn't provide us with security, it won't happen in Metula."
Terror tunnel in the grove
Dror Fine wanders restlessly through the corridors of the hotel. He didn't have time to pick 30 dunams of apples – the orchards are near the border, and he can't get close to them. He hopes the state will compensate him for the damage, but he also understands reality. "Five years ago, they found a Hezbollah tunnel in my grove. The IDF confiscated the land and took 20 dunams from me. To this day, I haven't received compensation." Fine is the fourth generation of the colony's founders. "In my father's will, he wrote that they would not give up the land at any price, that agriculture would continue."
His wife Mali joins: "We come back no matter what, this is our home. If we leave the land, our enemies will be here instead of us. I understand they caught us with our pants down, but we'll recover. On the other hand, I understand those who do not want to return home without comprehensive action in the north."
Hezbollah fighters, photo: AP
The attempt to maintain routine in the new situation and uncertainty is not easy for Metula residents. An entire community lives in two hotels. The school has resumed operations in a different format of unification between two strata, kindergartens are operating, and the community is trying with all its might to maintain routine life. That's when the black jokes pop up, like the one that says that an experiment has actually been done here in a new television format – to bring an entire community into Big Brother.
Kfir Lupo commutes every morning to work at a security factory in nearby Kiryat Shmona. "I have a deep longing and a strong desire to return home, but also a great fear of the day after and what might happen here as well. I believe that in the end we will return, but there is no doubt that we will consider our steps following what happened in the south."
"We will always be a destination"
Among the residents of Metula there are also many SLA members, some of whom grew up in Lebanon or were born in Israel to families of SLA veterans, and are well integrated and assimilated into the community. Many of them built their homes in Metulla, overlooking their homes and families who remained in Lebanon.
One of them is Marie Abu Gemara, who is now unsure she will return to her new home. "My husband isn't afraid, but I'll come back a little bit, and when possible, I'll sell and leave. Even if they put in an army, we will still be a target for Hezbollah. I don't know what will make me stay. We built our house in Metula, I wanted to live there. But I don't want my kids to keep experiencing that. 20 years ago we left Lebanon, stayed in a hotel for a year and a half - and now again."
Mari Abu Gemara, a resident of Metula from a Sadalniki family, who has now been evicted from her home,
Yakir Lishansky arrived in Metula only a few months ago and joined his partner, who was one of the families of the colony's founders. "I'm not coming home," he says flatly. "The feeling is that there is no one to rely on. I am waiting for the start of a campaign in the north, after which we will rise to a new reality. It could have been as much with us as it was in the south. It is impossible to raise children in fear. If reality does not change, the north will be abandoned. I hear everyone considering leaving, only a few will stay."
Yakir Lishansky and his son Yanivresidents of Metula who were evacuated from their homes,
Significant operation in the north
Barnea Roizer sees Hezbollah from the yard of the house, a few meters from the border fence. As he works in his garden, you can easily hear the Lebanese cursing the residents of Metula on the other side of the fence. The Hamamis ridge and Ayun Valley are the view from his home in Metula.
"I will return only if there is a significant operation in the north," he says. "I have my parents' household in Moshav Ilaniya, I'll go there if the state doesn't take care of the north. The settlement will be emptied. I invested all my money in the house in Metula, but no amount is worth risking my children's lives. The house will stay until the state does something."
"Radwan" skilled from Hamas
Roizer says of his frustration: "I really don't know what can help anymore. I never imagined such a scenario aimed at the north so powerfully, and with us it could be many times more powerful, because the Radwan Force is more skilled than Hamas."
Noam Wolf, a resident of Metula who was evicted from his home,
A security source we spoke with in recent days understands the concerns of Metula residents. "I understand very well that the reality here on the border of the Radwan Force vis-à-vis the residents of the north is an equation that will not exist, and we will have to change it. How do we change? Later in the war we will have to see. But the situation will not return to what it was on 6 October. It's obvious. There's no dispute about that."
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