{"id":17195,"date":"2024-11-16T09:07:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T09:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/inside-the-lebanese-border-town-that-has-not-been-evacuated\/"},"modified":"2024-11-16T09:07:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T09:07:19","slug":"inside-the-lebanese-border-town-that-has-not-been-evacuated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/inside-the-lebanese-border-town-that-has-not-been-evacuated\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Lebanese border town that has not been evacuated"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"AFPAFP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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Since the start of the Israel-Hezbollah war, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes because of the fighting. But the residents of one town right in the combat zone have decided to stay.<\/p>\n

Rmeish, just 2km (1.2 miles) from the border, is home to 7,000 Maronite Christians – and surrounded by firing on all sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of damage. Maybe 90% of houses have damage of some kind, glass smashed and cracks in the walls. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen when winter comes,\u201d says Jiries al-Alam, a farmer who also works as an undertaker with the town\u2019s church.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined to stay but hardly anyone sleeps at night because of the air strikes. Thankfully, there\u2019s been no deaths among the residents so far, but 200 of my cattle died from the military flares,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GeorgeGeorge al-Ameel<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rmeish is the only Lebanese border town that has not been directly ordered to evacuate by the Israeli military<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A day after Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on southern Israel from Gaza on 7 October 2023, its Lebanese ally Hezbollah began launching rockets into northern Israel, which in turn, started to strike Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The residents of Rmeish began seeing rockets flying in both directions above them.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of families raised white flags on their homes and cars to say that they are peaceful and have no link to what is happening,\u201d says Father George al-Ameel, 44, a priest and teacher in the town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to stay in our homes and don\u2019t want any war in our town.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GeorgeGeorge al-Ameel<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Father George al-Ameel says the town is peaceful and that residents want to stay<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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After Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on 1 October this year, the war drew closer to Rmeish, with heavy fighting taking place in two villages both less than 1.6km away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were staying in our house for months, then the air strikes started getting very close and suddenly our house was hit, we were forced to leave in the middle of the night,\u201d says Rasha Makhbour, 38.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople\u2019s work has stopped and no-one goes out, our children\u2019s school is shut, everything has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rasha\u2019s family of six moved to another house in the centre of town after theirs became uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the rockets that hit our home came from the south, not from our country,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The Israel Defense Forces told the BBC that there were \u201cno known IDF strikes\u201d on Rmeish during the dates Rasha Makhbour\u2019s house was damaged, claiming it was a \u201cfailed launch by Hezbollah\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RashaRasha Makhbour<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The roof of Rasha Makhbour’s home was hit and damaged<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Israel has issued a general evacuation order for the south of Lebanon since its ground invasion began. The UN says over 640,000 people have been displaced<\/a> from there as they flee the fighting.<\/p>\n

The Israeli government says that its military goals in southern Lebanon are to push back Hezbollah and return 60,000 Israelis displaced from its northern border towns to their homes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Map<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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On the border with Israel, Rmeish is the only Lebanese town that has not been directly ordered to leave.<\/p>\n

While neither side has directly threatened the residents of Rmeish during the conflict, they have had their loyalty to Lebanon questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been voices under the table spreading rumours that our presence here is evidence of our collaboration with Israel, the enemy. We completely reject this,\u201d says Father al-Ameel.<\/p>\n

It is a message reiterated by Rmeish\u2019s mayor, Milad al-Alam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had no guarantees of safety from any side,\u201d he says. \u201cOur town is peaceful, and our only cause is to stay for our identity and our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"JiriesJiries al-Alam<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jiries al-Alam says essential supplies are running out in Rmeish<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Until the start of Israel\u2019s ground invasion,<\/a> a Lebanese army unit had stayed in Rmeish and helped organise movement in and out of the town. But as Israeli forces moved to cross the border, the Lebanese army \u2013 which is not directly involved in the war \u2013 decided to pull out of Rmeish, much to the distress of locals.<\/p>\n

The Lebanese army said it rejected the description that they have \u2018withdrawn\u2019 from border locations, referring the BBC to a statement that the army is \u201crepositioning\u201d a number of military units in the south.<\/p>\n

Then at the end of October, the main route out of Rmeish itself was hit \u2013 leaving residents feeling further isolated and vulnerable. Since then, just one aid convoy has reached the town with the coordination of UN peacekeeping forces, the Unifil mission said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have needs for fuel, foods and medicines, there was a delivery coming from Tyre that had to turn around,\u201d says Father al-Ameel. \u201cIf someone is hurt, there\u2019s no hospital for serious medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Al-Alam tells us he is optimistic that the route out of town will be regularly usable again soon, so they can fill up their fuel reserves, even if the route through an active warzone is dangerous.<\/p>\n

Others in the town remain anxious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is really bad. There are no goods, no food or fuel coming through. We\u2019re starting to see items going missing from the shelves,\u201d says Jiries al-Alam, the town undertaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ll find a way through. Now is the olive season and in the worst case we can just eat olives. We want to stay in our homes and so we will die in our homes if we have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Joanna Majzoub and Aakriti Thapar<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFP Since the start of the Israel-Hezbollah war, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes because of the fighting. But the residents of one town right in the combat zone have decided to stay. Rmeish, just 2km (1.2 miles) from the border, is home to 7,000 Maronite Christians – and surrounded by firing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17197,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17195\/revisions\/17197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}