Destruction Continues in Southern Lebanon

0:00Today on State of the World, destruction continues in southern Lebanon.

0:09You'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, October 8th. I'm Greg Dixon. Talks that hope to end the war in Gaza are underway in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Senior officials from Hamas and Israel are attending, along with President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and envoy Steve Witkoff. The prime minister of Qatar is also there, and for the first time, Turkey's intelligence chief is taking part. The glimmer of optimism for an end to the devastating war comes just as the conflict passes the two-year mark.

0:48We've been looking at the impact this war has had throughout the region. On yesterday's episode, we heard about what the war has meant in Israel and in Gaza. Today, we're going to hear about southern Lebanon. Rocket fire from Hezbollah across the Lebanese border into Israel began two years ago. They were in support of Hamas, and they kicked off another conflict, a conflict in which Israel decimated Hezbollah leadership. There was a ceasefire that was supposed to end hostilities last year. But since that took effect, Israeli airstrikes and demolitions have erased entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon and killed more than 300 people.

1:28NPR's Jane Araf takes us to the Lebanese side of the border with Israel. We're in a cemetery in the Lebanese border village of Hula, in front of a marble monument now defaced and broken. The impact isn't as consequential as the demolished homes nearby, but it's a sign that the war officially frozen last year, and the attempt to erase history still rages. Retired schoolteacher Abdulaziz Shreem tells us almost 100 people are buried here. They were killed in 1948 by Israeli officers, later tried for war crimes in what became known as the Hula Massacre. He finds the names of his grandfather and grandmother on the damaged plaque.

2:18Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting across the Lebanese border since the Iran-backed militia started firing rockets at the beginning of the war in Gaza in 2023. Israeli attacks significantly weakened the militant group. After the ceasefire last November, when Hezbollah fighters withdrew from the border, Israeli soldiers occupied the village. They squalled over the names with black spray paint and then smashed it in pieces. They left this message in Hebrew graffiti next to a star of David. The only good Shia is a dead Shia. The Israelis took this entire village. They wanted to make the point that we are here.

3:01They wanted vengeance, Shreem says, of the latest destruction. The Israeli military, in response to an NPR query, says after the desecration, it reinforced procedures, unspecified, to prevent such incidents in the future. Despite the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, U.N. peacekeepers say Israel has continued regular attacks in South Lebanon. In their latest six-month report issued in July, the peacekeeping mission recorded 440 Israeli attacks into Lebanon. It recorded just one by Hezbollah into Israel. In Hula, Shreem says Israeli military bulldozers leveled homes and rigged others with explosives. His was one of 55 houses the village mayor says Israel destroyed after the ceasefire.

3:54This was my house, Shreem says. It was a three-story home he built after years of working abroad. Now it's a mountain of rubble. I'm looking at Gazi curtains that have been caught in a tree, and they're floating with wind among the leaves. Everywhere you look here, there are remnants of people's lives, almost all of it buried by chunks of concrete and metal bars.

4:23Shreem, who's 74, pulls some loose pages from the rubble. He says losing his library is what hurts the most. He had about 1 ,000 books, philosophy, science, history, some irreplaceable. Nearby is a creased, faded postcard depicting the Virgin Mary, used as a bookmark. I don't differentiate between Christian or Muslim or Jew, he says. The Zionists who killed his grandparents and destroyed his house, he says, are a different matter. Shreem says he used to harvest 200 pounds of pomegranates every season and sell the juice, but almost all the trees have been destroyed. It's dangerous here most days.

5:08Israel is still targeting what it says are Hezbollah fighters, and it drops stun grenades on civilians trying to rebuild. President Maryam Mazrani has come to take a quick look at what's left of her house. We are lost, she says. We need to know what will happen. Will our land be returned to us, or will they take it away from us? Will we be displaced again? The United States has floated turning these centuries-old villages into a Lebanese economic zone, it says, to help Israel feel secure. Shreem carries the keys to his demolished house, even though it no longer has walls or doors. He and his neighbors say they won't give up their homes, but neither can they rebuild while Israel is launching attacks.

5:59Jane Araf, NPR News, in Hula, southern Lebanon.

6:10You can find yesterday's episode about the impact of two years of war on Israel and Gaza in our podcast feed or at npr.org slash Mideast Updates. That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.