A fraying ceasefire in southern Lebanon with villages destroyed

0:00This message comes from KeyBank. Scaling a successful business takes more than just grit. It takes the right relationship. KeyBank pairs the right strategy with the right financial tools to keep your business moving forward. KeyBank opens doors. More at key.com slash b2b. Today on State of the World, a fraying ceasefire in southern Lebanon with villages destroyed. You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Wednesday, May 6th. I'm Greg Dixon. In a few minutes, what it's like for an American family to lose their ancestral home to a conflict far away.

0:45First, though there is officially a ceasefire, fighting in South Lebanon between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah has escalated recently. Attacks this week were the most intense since mid-April when the truce started, according to the UN. NPR's Jaina Raff in Beirut tells us more. It's called a ceasefire, but it doesn't look like one. Israel originally declared a buffer zone in South Lebanon, leveling homes and driving out residents in what it says are attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah. Recently, the Israeli military has been striking villages beyond that zone, and fighting with the militant group has intensified.

1:24Here's UN spokesperson Stéphane Djarik in New York Tuesday. Our peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon reported that yesterday saw the highest number of exchanges of fire between the Israeli defense forces and armed groups, including Hezbollah. That number? According to UN peacekeepers, 619 attacks by Israeli forces into Lebanon and 30 Hezbollah attacks targeting Israel, the highest since the April 16th ceasefire. The attacks have forced more than one million Lebanese from their homes since March, according to the UN. Many with little prospect of returning, as Israel levels entire neighborhoods in both Muslim and Christian towns.

2:08Israel says it's destroying Hezbollah infrastructure, but does not provide proof. It says it's targeting Hezbollah fighters, but Lebanon's health ministry says at least 270 women, 170 children and more than 100 medics are among at least 2 ,600 people killed in Israeli attacks since the fighting began two months ago. And people are going hungry, according to Dujariq, the UN spokesperson. The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. We're nearly a quarter of the population in Lebanon now facing acute food insecurity. Hezbollah has been seen by many as safeguarding Lebanon's sovereignty. But it doesn't answer to the Lebanese government.

2:52Lebanon has been exploring negotiations with Israel. Hezbollah, though, and many but not all Lebanese, say that Lebanon shouldn't negotiate while under attack. Jane Araf, NPR News, Beirut. As Jane just mentioned, towns and villages have been leveled in southern Lebanon. It's an effort that Israel says is to destroy Hezbollah architecture. One of those towns is Bint Jebel. Bale. That's where Ferous Sa 'ad's family had their ancestral home. Sa 'ad was born in Michigan to Lebanese parents. She's also a former assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security. She spoke with Michelle Martin.

3:30Would you tell us about Bintajabale? It's just this beautiful little quaint village in South Lebanon. And when I would visit it, It was almost like stepping back in time in some ways, right, where you literally see sheeps crossing the road and a town suit, you know, the market. Yeah, the market. It's where the family business that had been generational in our family for decades, a meat market, a halal meat market, stood as well. And so it was just this lovely little town. You know, the IDF, the Lebanese army, Hezbollah, they've been vying for control of the area for decades. And so when you would go to visit, how did you experience that?

4:16What did that look like up close? You know, as a child visiting, you're not really keen to what's happening in terms of, you know, the geopolitics. And I was experiencing Lebanon in as honest as a way as you possibly can as a child. My parents came here in the 1970s. And they came here specifically escaping Israeli aggression and the threat of Israeli occupation. And that was before Hezbollah existed. How did you find out that the house had been destroyed? My brother had actually sent us all a message in our family chat. And he let us know that they had been tracking it through satellite images.

5:04And that's essentially how they had confirmed it, because my family in the region has been displaced. It felt like a piece of us had just been destroyed. I used to joke with my dad that he has seven children, the six of us and then that home. You know, and I would joke when he would go back and he went back so much. It was truly his happy place. I would be like, how's your favorite child? Have you talked to them since? I guess you all found out at the same time on the family chat. Have they been able to accept it? I think everyone's going through the stages of grief in their own way. My mom that day was so sad and so upset and crying.

5:53In her words, she said, you know, we're American. We did everything right. We did everything right here. We did everything right there. And what did we do to deserve this? Sometimes it's easy to just only look at the broader picture and think, well, you know, the geopolitics or it's complicated and, oh, they only target certain people or certain areas or certain homes. There's real humans behind these stories, and we deserve the same humanity that we want all people to have. That's Farouz Sa 'ad. She is a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. We've been talking about her ancestral home in Bint Jebel in southern Lebanon, which has been destroyed along with thousands of others in a course of Israeli airstrikes.

6:53Frederica Saad, thank you so much for talking with us. Thank you so much for having me. And she was speaking with Michelle Martin.

7:03And that's The State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening. This message comes from KeyBank. Scaling a successful business takes more than just grit. It takes the right relationship. KeyBank pairs the right strategy with the right financial tools to keep your business moving forward. KeyBank opens doors. More at key.com slash b2b. Rare earths have become a powerful political tool for China. But before that, one U.S. company monopolized the industry. We have the dramatic story of how America dominated the market for rare earths and then lost it all. I think about that almost every day of my life, Kenny.

7:44What could I have done differently? Listen to Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Allianz Travel Insurance. A flat tire made you miss your plane to Paris. How unromantic. Trip change protection can reimburse the fees to switch your flight. Love does conquer all. Learn more at AllianzTravelInsurance.com.