JEZZINE, Lebanon — Joseph Elias Issa worries he might never return to his land.
He’s from a long line of shepherds and farmers in the town of Kfar Houneh, in southern Lebanon. In his 56 years, he has stayed put — in these rocky olive and citrus groves of his ancestors — through nearly every war Israel has fought with its neighbors. But this time feels different, he says.
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon — aimed at ousting Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants from these same rocky hills — has triggered one of the biggest and fastest displacements in Lebanon’s history, affecting more than a million people, or about a fifth of the population. Israel has ordered residents to move north of the Zahrani River, below which Israeli airstrikes have destroyed bridges, homes, highways and gas stations. That evacuation zone comprises 15% to 20% of Lebanon’s territory.
Across the country, schools have been converted into shelters. People are also camping out in tents at a soccer stadium in the capital Beirut. Issa has taken refuge in a shepherd’s hut in the forest, near a waterfall. It’s on the outskirts of Jezzine, about 5 miles north of Kfar Houneh. Both are outside the evacuation zone, but their outskirts have still been hit by Israeli airstrikes.
“Airstrikes, warplanes, you hear it, you see it all around you,” Issa recalls of his harrowing drive north, in a truck carrying his mules.
What Israel is doing in southern Lebanon
Israeli Defense Minister Israeli Katz says Israel’s military is “accelerating the destruction of Lebanese homes” in accordance with tactics used in Gaza, where residential areas were razed, to prevent militants from returning. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the military is creating a “security zone” designed to push anti-tank missile fire away from Israel’s northern border.
Katz says once hostilities cease, Israel will “maintain security control” over a smaller border area, up to the Litani River, encompassing about half of the larger evacuation zone, or roughly 8% to 15% of Lebanese territory. He said more than 600,000 residents who evacuated northward will be “completely prohibited south of the Litani, until the safety and security of northern Israeli residents are guaranteed.”
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Israeli officials have not said how long that might be. Hezbollah retains support among many in southern Lebanon, and is still firing rockets at northern Israel.
“You get displaced, and you leave your house, and maybe you never come back,” Issa says. “We are besieged.”
Human rights groups say forced displacement is a possible war crime
Israel is complying with international law when it warns civilians before bombing their towns. But when those warnings are so broad, covering huge swaths of the country, they “threaten to cause panic,” says Ramzi Kaiss, a Beirut-based researcher with Human Rights Watch. And when they’re open-ended, lasting indefinitely, they may amount to a war crime, he says.
“You cannot tie people’s return to their homes to some vague safety guarantee that you decide,” Kaiss says. “People must be allowed to return to their homes, once the hostilities cease.”
If people think they might never be allowed into their homes, that could influence their decision about whether or not to leave — even if in real danger, he says.
On the main shopping street in Jezzine, a mountain town just north of the evacuation zone, Haddad Cutlery has been in business since 1770. The manager, Grace Rizk, 65, prides herself on staying open “seven days a week, through every war.”
“We’re used to war. Right now, if an airstrike comes, I won’t budge. God will protect us,” Risk says. “In the end, we are steadfast. We will not leave.”
Lebanon has been through this before
The mayor of Jezzine, David El Helou, recalls how Israel occupied southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000. Israeli soldiers set up a checkpoint near his house.
Back then, Israel was battling Palestinian militants. Now it’s Hezbollah.
El Helou says this war feels “more serious” than past ones. Israel has said it wants oust militants from the area south of the Litani once and for all. It’s a task Lebanon’s own army was supposed to do, according to terms of a November 2024 ceasefire after a previous war with Israel. But it has not done so.
“We are in an uncertain situation,” El Helou says. “You can never be sure when it’s going to end, which direction it’s going to take, what’s going to happen. The fear is always there.”
Transcript:
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
We are beginning today’s show with a look at how the war in Iran has spread across the Middle East and has ignited a second war within a war. President Trump is threatening to obliterate Iran’s civilian infrastructure if a deal between the countries isn’t reached soon. Pakistan says it’s brokered a deal with Iran to allow some vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, but oil prices are still up. And fighting continues across the region. In Lebanon, three United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in the past 24 hours, though it’s unclear by whom – Israel or the Hezbollah militants it’s been fighting. It is a sign that the fighting is intensifying there. More than 1,200 people have been killed in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is expanding an invasion of the country’s south. NPR’s Lauren Frayer reports from just above an evacuation zone there.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALL BOUNCING)
UNDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Non-English language spoken).
(CROSSTALK)
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Schools like this one in the southern town of Jezzine have been repurposed into shelters – kids playing soccer, adults sitting on the curb, chain-smoking, scanning evacuation orders Israel puts out on social media. At first, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said his troops would accelerate the destruction of homes in southern Lebanon in accordance with a Gaza model…
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ISRAEL KATZ: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: …And take Lebanese territory up to the Litani River, which runs east-west, varying about 10 to 20 miles north of the current border. A few days later, though, Israel ordered residents to move 10 miles beyond that, north of another river called the Zahrani. Now Netanyahu’s threat to widen this invasion without specifics is causing more confusion here. There’s fear and exhaustion in everyone’s eyes.
COLETTE SLIM: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: “People are fleeing north in waves with every new Israeli threat, every new strike,” the school principal, Colette Slim, tells me as warplanes roar overhead.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLANES FLYING OVERHEAD)
SLIM: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: Her school filled up in the first wave, she says, and is now forced to turn people away. This has been one of the biggest and fastest displacements in Lebanon’s history, affecting more than a million people – about a fifth of the population. Israel says it’s targeting Hezbollah militants who continue to have support among some of these displaced people and continue to fire thousands of rockets southward across the border. Israel is warning civilians, in accordance with international law, before bombing their towns. But Ramzi Kaiss, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, says when warnings are so broad, covering huge swaths of the country…
RAMZI KAISS: And they’re not tied to a specific attack that’s going to happen, they threaten to cause panic amongst the civilian population, for example, in the first day of the escalation to over 50 villages. By the second day it was over a hundred villages and towns.
JOSEPH ELIAS ISSA: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: I meet Joseph Elias Issa in a shepherd’s shack in the forest. He’s fled the town of Kfar Hounah, just south of here. He huddles around a woodburning stove, his head wrapped in a keffiyeh.
ISSA: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: He says he was raised on that land, makes a living on that land. In his 56 years, he’s lived through almost every war with Israel on that land. But now he wonders if he will ever be able to go home. This time, Israel’s defense minister says what he calls a buffer zone will remain until the security of Israel’s northern residents is guaranteed. Human Rights Watch’s Kaiss says that’s forced displacement – a possible war crime.
KAISS: You cannot tie people’s return to their homes to some vague safety guarantee, that you decide people must be allowed to return to their homes once the hostilities cease.
FRAYER: His forest shack, Issa describes hearing airstrikes as he fled, driving his mules northward in a truck through destruction…
ISSA: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: …Uphill, through the olive and citrus groves.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
FRAYER: From this hill, I can look down towards the Zahrani River. That’s the zone where Israeli forces have ordered people to evacuate north of – and even beyond that, to the Litani, where Israel has said it wants to make a new border, below which it wants to take Lebanese territory.
PAUL KHREISH: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: “We’re worried this region will no longer be Lebanese,” says Paul Khreish, a municipal official in a village called Ain Ebel, near the Israeli border. NPR reached him by phone. It was too dangerous to visit. He said he doesn’t know whether to stay or go. The roads keep getting hit by airstrikes. But if the border is moved, he could end up under Israeli occupation.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR BANGING)
FRAYER: That’s happened before.
DAVID EL HELOU: Israel reached the Litani River back in 1978.
FRAYER: David El Helou (ph) is the mayor of Jezzine. He’s old enough to recall how Israel occupied southern Lebanon through the ’80s and ’90s.
EL HELOU: They were at a checkpoint, like, 2 kilometers from here.
FRAYER: Back then, Israel was battling Palestinian militants. Now it’s Hezbollah. I ask him if he feels like history is repeating itself, and if he thinks Israel’s no-go zone might expand northward into his town.
EL HELOU: Things can go wrong anytime. You can never be sure when it’s going to end, which direction it’s going to take, what’s going to happen. Yeah, the fear is always there.
FRAYER: Does this time feel different than the past?
EL HELOU: I don’t know. I have a feeling that this time looks more serious.
FRAYER: He and so many other people in this region tell us they think this time, this war may be different. Lauren Frayer, NPR News in Jezzine, southern Lebanon.
