Residents living along Israel’s northern border are taking a stand, refusing to abandon their homes despite facing renewed rocket attacks from Hezbollah forces across the Lebanese frontier.
Fifty-nine-year-old Orna Weinberg was among those who evacuated from her home in Manara after a Hezbollah rocket damaged her property in October 2023. She spent two years away from her close-knit community, which sits mere meters from Lebanon’s border.
Weinberg characterized those years of displacement as “pretty tough,” marked by devastating personal losses. Several elderly community members, including her mother-in-law and uncle, passed away while living away from home.
“The day we had electricity, and we could put a mattress in, we got back, and we started fixing the house from inside out,” Weinberg explained about returning to her damaged home.
Despite current rocket fire targeting northern Israel as military forces engage Hezbollah in broader regional conflict, Weinberg and fellow residents of the small kibbutz are determined to remain, having only returned last October.
“We will never, ever leave this place again,” Weinberg declared.
The kibbutz of Manara was founded in 1943 by Jewish immigrants during the British Mandatory Palestine period, five years before Israel’s establishment as a state.
From Manara’s perimeter, Lebanese villages are easily visible, highlighting the community’s exposure to cross-border attacks. The sound of Israeli artillery responding into Lebanon regularly reverberates across the area.
People living in Manara and neighboring northern Israeli settlements, which house hundreds of thousands of residents, typically have mere seconds to reach protective shelters when rockets launch from Lebanon, unlike those in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem who have several minutes. Occasionally, alerts arrive only after projectiles have already hit their targets.
Construction work on Weinberg’s residence has stopped due to safety concerns. Other damaged homes in the kibbutz await demolition after sustaining damage from Hezbollah rockets during more than a year of combat that paralleled the Gaza conflict. The Israel-Hezbollah hostilities decreased following a ceasefire agreement in 2024.
At Hagoshrim, another kibbutz located approximately two kilometers from the Lebanese border, residents have similarly committed to staying despite deadly rocket threats. A community member was killed by Hezbollah fire in 2024.
Hagoshrim resident Dror Gavish acknowledges the terror posed by the Lebanese militant organization. Two Israelis have died in Hezbollah strikes since the group began launching rockets in support of Iran on March 2 this year.
Nevertheless, forty-two-year-old Gavish said he, his spouse, and their three children chose to remain rather than evacuate. “We are here and we’re not going to go anywhere.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration has maintained that no northern residents will face forced evacuation as combat continues.
This approach contrasts sharply with conditions across the border, where Israeli forces have commanded hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians to flee their communities as bombing campaigns destroy villages, with Israel claiming Hezbollah uses these areas for launching attacks. Israel’s renewed military campaign in Lebanon has displaced over 1.2 million people.
Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault on southern Israel, Manara’s population evacuated, fearing Hezbollah might execute a similar attack. Tens of thousands of northern Israeli residents received government support to stay in temporary housing throughout the country, with many still not returned.
Currently, Netanyahu’s government has not provided funding for residents to stay in hotels elsewhere until hostilities end. Instead, officials have promised to capture Lebanese territory to prevent Hezbollah from threatening northern Israeli communities with short-range weapons.
Weinberg expresses criticism toward Netanyahu’s government. Like numerous Israelis, she believes an investigation must examine the failures leading to the October 7 attack, which resulted in nearly 1,200 deaths, including two of her family members. Another relative was kidnapped to Gaza and subsequently killed, she reported.
Netanyahu has denied personal accountability for the failures and has resisted an independent investigation, instead supporting an inquiry where the government would select half the panel members.
“I don’t think the government are our saviours, and I don’t expect them to be,” Weinberg stated. She believes Israel’s leadership should pursue peaceful relations with neighboring countries rather than engaging in warfare.
Gavish from Hagoshrim said that while he, like many Israelis, views Iran as a significant threat, he lacks confidence in Netanyahu’s government to act in the nation’s best interests.
He anticipates upcoming elections will produce new leadership focused on diplomatic solutions, including peace agreements with Lebanon.
“I really believe things here can be much better for us,” he said.
