South Lebanon residents say Hezbollah helping to pay for lost furniture, rent
With IDF withdrawing from most of southern Lebanon Tuesday morning, civilians say they’re waiting for terror group’s construction arm to help rebuild their homes
With Israeli troops withdrawing from most of southern Lebanon on Tuesday morning under a US-brokered ceasefire, Lebanese residents have said they’re waiting for Hezbollah’s construction arm to help rebuild their homes after the long months of fighting.
Khiam, one of the largest towns close to the Israeli border, suffered widespread damage, including entire blocks that were turned into piles of debris, while graffiti left behind by the Israel Defense Forces could be seen on the walls as well as inside homes. The town’s cemetery suffered severe damage, with many graves blown out.
On Monday, workers were removing debris in different locations in Khiam as many residents came during the day to spend a few hours at their homes and leave before sunset, since the town still has no electricity or running water. New poles were being put in place by Lebanon’s state-run electricity company, as the infrastructure suffered severe damage.
The Israel Defense Forces was completing its withdrawal from most of south Lebanon on Tuesday morning, with the original deadline having been extended from January 26 until February 18. Troops will remain in five strategic positions near the border, where the IDF said it was prepared to stay at the posts for a lengthy period, at least until Hezbollah fully withdraws beyond the Litani River.
One of these locations is the Hamamis hill on the southern outskirts of Khiam. On Monday, Israeli military bulldozers could be seen from a distance at work building what appeared to be fortifications.
“In Khiam everyone was martyred,” read graffiti on a wall in Arabic. “Khiam is Golani’s graveyard,” another one read, referring to the IDF’s Golani Brigade.
The Hezbollah terror group began near-daily attacks on northern Israel a day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. Some 60,000 Israeli residents of the north were displaced by Hezbollah’s attacks, with its rocket fire eventually spreading to the center of the country.
Israel intensified its campaign against Hezbollah in September 2024, launching a series of devastating blows against the group’s leadership and killing its longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, before launching a ground invasion in southern Lebanon aimed at securing the border and enabling the return of displaced Israelis. A ceasefire was secured in November.
In a speech Sunday, Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Qassem called for Israel to fully withdraw from Lebanon, saying “there is no pretext for five points nor other details.” He called for the Lebanese state to prevent IDF troops from staying in the country after Tuesday, as stated in the ceasefire deal.
In a building on the eastern edge of Khiam, a woman showed a journalist a Star of David sprayed in red at the entrance to her apartment. The woman, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, then walked through her apartment, showing a reporter the damage in the sitting room and kitchen.
Also in Khiam, Sabah Abdullah, 66, said she visits her hometown in southern Lebanon every morning and sits by her destroyed home. She is waiting for experts from Hezbollah’s construction arm to compensate her for the damage caused by the war.
Abdullah said that soon after the war ended, the terror group’s construction arm Jihad al-Binaa paid her $12,000, of which $8,000 was to compensate her for lost furniture and $4,000 for a year’s rent.
She said that since the war began, she rented a house in Marakaba, and had spent most of her savings and was selling some of her jewelry. She said she is now waiting for government experts to visit her and estimate the losses, and pay her for rebuilding the two-story house that she shared with her brother.
“Damage can be compensated but the loss of souls cannot be replaced,” said Abdullah, as she sat on a plastic chair in the sun outside her shop.
She said when she first came to Khiam days after the ceasefire went into effect, she found that hungry cats and dogs inside her badly damaged shop had eaten cakes, croissants and chocolates. The metal door of her shop was blown wide open, she said.
Seeing her home, which was built by her late father, destroyed saddened her, but Abdullah said she was happy that none of her siblings or relatives were hurt during the war.
“I will rebuild my house, but the future is obscure. We live close to the border,” Abdullah said, referring to repeated wars with Israel over the past decades.
Another Khiam resident, Dalal Abdallah, said if Israel decides to stay in Lebanon, it will be eventually forced to leave again.
“Valuable blood and souls were paid for this land,” she said, adding, “No one should think that we will leave our land.”
Israel’s military has estimated that some 3,500 Hezbollah operatives were killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon. The fighting also left thousands wounded and caused damage worth billions of dollars.
Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 46 civilians. In addition, 80 IDF soldiers and reservists died in cross-border skirmishes, attacks on Israel, and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
