MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The border between Israel and Lebanon is pretty quiet these days after a ceasefire deal reached a few months ago between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Tens of thousands of Israelis who lived along the Lebanese border have spent more than a year away. But now, as NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi reports, the calm has given some the confidence to move back home.
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Shlomi is a sleepy town in the north of Israel. The houses are big and white. Many have manicured front lawns and balconies. An Israeli flag flaps in the wind from Avram Moreno's (ph) terrace with a great view.
AVRAM MORENO: Here is Lebanon, and here is Israel.
AL-SHALCHI: Moreno points to either side of a zigzagging wall a few miles away dividing Lebanon and Israel. The 81-year-old and his wife came back home to Shlomi a little more than three months ago. Like most of the town's 7,000 residents, they fled Shlomi south to safer cities after Hezbollah started firing rockets across the border shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Moreno says after spending nearly a year and a half in a hotel paid for by the Israeli government, they finally felt like it was OK to come home.
MORENO: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "We just want quiet," Moreno says. That quiet came after Israel intensified its strikes on Hezbollah, ultimately killing its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in September. Israel struck a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in November and created a buffer zone that they control well inside Lebanon. And Israel continues bombing targets in Lebanese territory and destroying infrastructure - a violation of the ceasefire, according to the United Nations.
Segev Ayash (ph) heads the Shlomi municipality. He credits the Israeli military's response to Hezbollah's attacks as one of the reasons residents felt safe to return.
SEGEV AYASH: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "We attacked every little thing. We don't play games," he says. Ayash says that the Shlomi municipality spent over $11 million to clean up the schools that were used as bases for soldiers during the war and rehabilitate the town's other facilities after they were all but abandoned for more than a year. But not everyone is sure now is the time to make the move home.
Mordi Saada (ph) and his wife, Liron (ph), evacuated Shlomi with their four children the day after Hamas attacked Israel. They're still living in a town nearby but far from the border. Liron went back to Shlomi and couldn't believe the damage to her home, which she filmed on her phone and played for me. The house had taken a direct hit from a Hezbollah rocket.
LIRON SAADA: (Non-English language spoken, gasping).
AL-SHALCHI: Between astonished gasps, she describes how the ceiling has crumbled into rubble. There are strewn kitchen appliances, metal structures exposed from the walls.
L SAADA: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "All our kids' toys, their beds, everything was destroyed," Liron says. It's incredibly painful. But even if they could, Mordi says they're still nervous about another Hezbollah attack or another Hamas infiltration like the one on October 7.
MORDI SAADA: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "Let's be honest," he says. "I don't feel safe going back to Shlomi anymore, but I do want to." Liron says the only way they will finally feel safe is if the war in Gaza ends.
L SAADA: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: "The fact that the war continues, we know that there is still no security," she says.
Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Shlomi, north Israel.
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