William Molinié, edited by Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: JOSEPH EID / AFP
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7:54 a.m., November 14, 2023
In the far north of Israel, on the Lebanese border, the 1,500 souls of the village of Metula were evacuated by Israeli soldiers under direct fire from Hezbollah. Despite everything, around ten die-hard residents decided to stay.
Tension is rising in northern Israel, on the Lebanese border. Clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah have increased in recent days. The rains of Hezbollah rockets are followed by the aftershocks of Israeli artillery. On the front line, in the far north of Israel, Metula, a sort of Israeli peninsula which extends into Lebanese territory. A ghost village at the forefront of this northern front where Europe 1 visited.
“Whatever happens, I will stay here forever”
“We’re not going there. It’s okay, the snipers can’t see us from here.” Israeli soldiers block the entrance to the village. Usually 1,500 souls, around ten diehards today, who have decided to stay, like Mayan, 22, a farmer. “We have apples at the moment. Pink lady apples. The best. They are on the trees but we cannot harvest them, because they are on the border with Lebanon”, he laments on the microphone. Europe 1. Rockets, anti-tank missiles, kamikaze drones… Hezbollah’s first positions are less than a kilometer away.
The IDF soldiers have just seconds to reach a bunker on the hillside. “Commander? Yes, I’m listening. The alert is still in progress? Positive, in progress”, two soldiers exchange by radio. Hezbollah shoots on sight from the other side of the border. But nothing to impress Arié, 73, veteran of the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur. “They think they can make me leave here. It’s out of the question. Whatever happens, I will stay here forever. Even if I have to die,” assures the septuagenarian. In a village a few kilometers to the west, an Israeli electrician died on Sunday, hit by an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon, while he had come to repair a high-voltage line.