ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER – The fighting on Israel's northern border is intensifying with an average of 10 terrorist attacks a day in May. Yesterday, a Hezbollah drone injured 11 people and killed one IDF soldier in the Galilee. Most Israeli citizens have evacuated communities near Israel's border with Lebanon.
The Hezbollah terrorist organization has employed various weapons, targeting civilian areas and forcing over 60,000 people to evacuate from northern Israel. One such place is the Malkiya Kibbutz, located right on the border with Lebanon. When everyone else left, Eitan Oren was one of the few who stayed behind to keep the farm alive.
"Here in Malkiya, we are normal days are about 550 to 600 people, and normal days at the moment, about 15 remained, about 15. All the rest have been evacuated," Eitan Oren told us.
This kibbutz has hundreds of acres of beautiful cherries. They're ripe and ready to harvest. The problem is there's nobody to harvest them because of the deadly threat from the north just a mile or so away. As if farming was not difficult enough, those who remain have to deal with mortar rounds that have burned trees and endangered lives.
Now, the very few people that are here working on this kibbutz are just doing whatever they can to sort of triage the farm and keep it from just going fallow and all these beautiful trees being destroyed.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant addressed the escalating situation, emphasizing the need for a strong response to Hezbollah's aggression.
"We will not allow Hezbollah to threaten the security of Israeli citizens. Our response will be firm and decisive, targeting those responsible for these heinous attacks," Galant said.
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In addition to the damage caused to farms and infrastructure, Hezbollah's bombardment has sparked dozens of wildfires across northern Israel, further straining the region's resources and putting lives at risk.
Oren said, "These are mortars hitting at apple trees, the apple orchards. Granny Smith and Galaxy all burned... Next year they will be fine. But this year's all gone. Kaput."
No matter whether they get a ceasefire agreement in Gaza or not, the war here in Israel really cannot end until they address the problems they're having here in the North.
Here in the town of Kiryat Shmona, which once was a town of 25,000 people, it's now all but empty. We observed smoke all around as the constant, daily barrage of drones, missiles, and rockets that come into this town make it impossible for the residents to move back home. And so they're stuck in hotels all around this country until the government does something about the problem of Hezbollah.
"If we are not unified, if we're not together we're going to have another October 7th and another October 7th," Oren said. "So please back up from your agenda or the right or the left, I don't care, and be together."
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