When Abed Hachem’s home was damaged during a 2024 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, he rebuilt it from scratch. Now, returning to his village of Qlaileh in southern Lebanon, he faces something far worse — almost nothing is left to rebuild.
Where his house once stood, there is only rubble. His garden is gone, replaced by dust and debris. Scattered among the ruins of what used to be his living room are children’s toys and broken furniture.
“Oh dear… Oh God. There was a building here… here… there was a building here,” said the 46-year-old father of three, gesturing toward the skeletal remains of his neighbors’ homes.
Among the few structures still standing in the village is the spire of the local mosque.
The current round of violence between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with its ally Iran, pulling Lebanon into the broader regional conflict. Israel answered with airstrikes and a ground invasion that took control of portions of southern Lebanon.
The toll has been devastating: more than 3,900 people have been killed, and roughly 1.2 million have been forced from their homes as Israeli evacuation orders emptied village after village across southern Lebanon. Israel has maintained that its military campaign targeted Hezbollah’s fighters and military infrastructure.
Now, as residents like Hachem make their way back, they are confronting the painful reality of communities that no longer exist.
“The whole village is destroyed. My house is destroyed. The village is destroyed. Where are we supposed to go now?” he said. “There is nothing left. A lifetime’s work is all gone.”
Among those killed was a neighbor Hachem considered a brother — a man he shared tea with every morning. That neighbor’s son also died in the violence.
“They have nothing to do with political parties, nothing to do with weapons, nothing to do with wars,” Hachem said, his voice filled with frustration. “The man was just trying to support his family, and he and his son died for nothing.”
An interim agreement announced between the United States and Iran brought a brief pause to the fighting earlier this week, giving displaced residents a window to return home. Hostilities flared once more before a new ceasefire took hold Friday afternoon.
For Hachem, the agreement came too late to save what mattered most.
“This agreement they reached, they should have made it from the very beginning,” he said. “Not after people were destroyed.”
