AFP:
On a lush green hilltop on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, Carmela Keren Yakuti proudly shows off her home in Dovev, which she fled more than 16 months ago over fears of a Hezbollah attack.
“Now that everyone is back, it’s an amazing feeling,” said Yakuti, 40, standing on her freshly washed patio and breathing in the crisp country air.
“It’s great here. We have a beautiful moshav, a beautiful view,” she added, referring to what Israelis call a small agricultural community. “It’s simply great to be back home.”
On October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel triggered war in Gaza, Lebanon’s Hezbollah group declared its support for the Palestinian militants and began firing rockets into northern Israel.
For their own protection, the Israeli military ordered Yakuti, her family, friends and neighbours to leave Dovev, and they were sent to live in a hotel in the city of Tiberius, further south.
In total, the hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah displaced around 60,000 residents of northern towns and villages, according to official data.
Half are yet to return home.
On the Lebanese side, more than one million people fled the south of the country, around 100,000 of whom are still displaced, according to the United Nations.
On November 27, 2024, after more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war during which Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon, a truce agreement came into force.
Israeli authorities have said residents of northern border communities could return home from March 1.
Yakuti, who retrained as a beautician during the time she was displaced, said she immediately packed up her belongings, bid farewell to the “kind” hotel staff and moved back into her two-storey home.
From her living room and patio, she has a clear view of a Lebanese village that was emptied of its residents following evacuation calls issued by the Israeli army in September ahead of its ground offensive.
“I’m not afraid and not shaking. The army did its job and carried out its work,” the mother of three said, adding: “I’m at peace with my decision to return here, and I wouldn’t give up my home and my moshav even if the war continued.”
