Since the start of the Israel-Hezbollah war, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes because of the fighting. But the residents of one town right in the combat zone have decided to stay. Rmeish, just 2km (1.2 miles) from the border, is home to 7,000 Maronite Christians – and surrounded by firing on all sides.
“There’s lots of damage. Maybe 90% of houses have damage of some kind, glass smashed and cracks in the walls. I don’t know what’s going to happen when winter comes,” says Jiries al-Alam, a farmer who also works as an undertaker with the town’s church.
“We are determined to stay but hardly anyone sleeps at night because of the air strikes. Thankfully, there’s been no deaths among the residents so far, but 200 of my cattle died from the military flares,” he adds.
A day after Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on southern Israel from Gaza on 7 October 2023, its Lebanese ally Hezbollah began launching rockets into northern Israel, which in turn, started to strike Lebanon. The residents of Rmeish began seeing rockets flying in both directions above them.
“Lots of families raised white flags on their homes and cars to say that they are peaceful and have no link to what is happening,” says Father George al-Ameel, 44, a priest and teacher in the town. “We want to stay in our homes and don’t want any war in our town.”
After Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on 1 October this year, the war drew closer to Rmeish, with heavy fighting taking place in two villages both less than 1.6km away.
“We were staying in our house for months, then the air strikes started getting very close and suddenly our house was hit, we were forced to leave in the middle of the night,” says Rasha Makhbour, 38. “People’s work has stopped and no-one goes out, our children’s school is shut, everything has changed.”
Rasha’s family of six moved to another house in the centre of town after theirs became uninhabitable. “We believe the rockets that hit our home came from the south, not from our country,” she says.
The Israel Defense Forces told the BBC that there were “no known IDF strikes” on Rmeish during the dates Rasha Makhbour’s house was damaged, claiming it was a “failed launch by Hezbollah”.
Israel has issued a general evacuation order for the south of Lebanon since its ground invasion began. The UN says over 640,000 people have been displaced from there as they flee the fighting.
The Israeli government says that its military goals in southern Lebanon are to push back Hezbollah and return 60,000 Israelis displaced from its northern border towns to their homes.
