‘Colossal Failure’ - Mayor of Northern Israeli Town Says Lebanon Ceasefire Will Led to ‘Disintegration’ of Israeli Border Towns

By Batya Jerenberg

(November 28, 2024 / World Israel News) The head of a moshav along the border with Lebanon slammed the ceasefire deal with the Hezbollah terror group that went into effect Wednesday, in an interview Thursday with Radio 103FM.

Eitan Davidi pulled no punches when noting the deal’s main weakness.

“We repeatedly requested that the distance between us and the villages where Hezbollah terrorists live in Lebanon be extended to two or three kilometers. Everyone, including the military, told us this proximity couldn’t continue.”

It is “a colossal failure” that the government “didn’t deliver” on a buffer zone, he said, charging that this will “lead us to a fourth Lebanon war and to the disintegration of the northern communities.”

There is no exclusionary strip included in the agreement, but Israel has unofficially reserved the right – backed by the U.S. – to destroy any Hezbollah effort to reinstate its men or weaponry in southern Lebanon after the IDF pullout in 60 days’ time.

An Israeli official told Reuters Wednesday that the IDF has leveled enough of Hezbollah’s infrastructure near the border that any attempt to re-enter the area would be seen and there would be enough time for Israel to respond.

However, there is no clause in the deal stating that the Lebanese villages cannot be rebuilt, which would provide new hiding places for weapons and missile launchers, and the men to operate them.

In its two-and-a-half month foray into Lebanon, IDF forces found that Iran’s chief proxy had built up a formidable armory in every village they entered and a tunnel network that reached the Israeli border in several places.

‘All for Nothing’ — Israelis’ Fury Over Netanyahu’s Ceasefire Deal

By Gabrielle Weiniger

(November 27, 2024 / Times of London) The reasons not to return are clear for Rachel Amar, an evacuee from the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona where, only hours before Binyamin Netanyahu announced the ceasefire in Lebanon, a Hezbollah rocket hit a bus station.

Sitting in one of Tel Aviv’s finest beachfront hotels as she weighed the news of Israel’s truce and the prospect of returning home, Amar had doubts. “What are we doing here? This agreement doesn’t give us security,” she said. “We are so close [to Lebanon]. I keep imagining October 7 will happen to us — it’s a matter of luck that it didn’t.”

Amar, 59, a hotel worker and single mother of three, is not alone in her concerns. Though many have welcomed a pause in the war that has claimed at least 73 Israeli troops, fears remain that Hezbollah will rise up again.

“I’m not going back even when they say we can,” she said. “We’ll have to have a weapon and a lock on our safe room and full security. I am alone with the children, so I’m afraid to go home.”

Israel and Hezbollah have until the end of January to pull back their fighters from southern Lebanon and fully implement the ceasefire agreement that came into effect Wednesday morning. During that time, residents of the border towns can, in theory, return to their homes.

But after 14 months under heavy fire, their villages and towns abandoned in ruins and turned military staging grounds, it’s not clear what is left for them to go back to and whether they will agree to go back at all.

Survivors of the October 7 attacks and many of those who evacuated the north and south of the country have been supported by the organization IsraAid. Yotam Polizer, the chief executive, said: “The anxiety, trauma of those who lost their loved ones, their homes — they have been refugees inside their own country with no idea when they’ll go back, if it will be safe again.”

A security source familiar with the agreement said it would be enforced “by force” to prevent another land incursion like October 7, when Hamas militants broke through the border fence and streamed into Israeli communities, massacring the residents.

Amar said that her brother, who lives in Metula on the northern border fence, would not be returning at all. Both their towns lay in ruins by Hezbollah rocket and missile fire. She blamed America for pressuring Israel to sign an agreement too early.

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