The Lebanese border is less than two kilometers from Kibbutz Dafna, which was a frequent target of Hezbollah rockets, especially after Israel launched its ground invasion of southern Lebanon in September until the ceasefire at the end of November 2024.
Orit and Barry Praag, a retired couple, didn’t wait for the ceasefire to move back home. Evacuated in October 2023 with the rest of the kibbutz, they returned to the kibbutz in June and remained there through the Israeli ground invasion and heavy rocket barrage.
“I came back because I see Dafna as my home,” Orit said. “I believe in living here. I was born here. I always grew up next to the border.”
But most of the other residents at this kibbutz and in northern Israel in general are not rushing back. Soon after the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023 sparked the ongoing war, some 60,000 residents of northern Israel were evacuated to hotels. In the ensuing 14 months, many have rented apartments, wanting more space than a hotel room can provide.
Now they hesitate to go back to their homes. Those with children in school are not going to take their children out of school and move back before the end of the school year. Services have still not reopened in Kibbutz Dafna or anywhere close to the border, which means there is no supermarket, medical clinic, or schools, so residents have to travel to avail themselves of those those services.
Many northern residents are taking a “wait and see attitude” as the 60-day tenuous ceasefire with Hezbollah seems to be taking root. The dramatic events in Syria have only added to their hesitation.
Residents of the North hesitate to return home
Hezbollah rocket attacks, and the fires they sparked, have destroyed hundreds of the avocado trees on Kibbutz Dafna. Most will need to be cut down and replanted, meaning there will be no income from the trees for at least four years. Farmer Magen Shenhav was evacuated with his family soon after the war began, but he has been traveling to the kibbutz every day to take care of the trees. He said his family, which includes his two young children, decided that they will not return to the kibbutz at least until the school year ends. He looks wistfully at the burnt trees.
“The fire started north of here because of the bombing, and then the leaves caught fire,” he said. “There are still fruits on the trees. But I’d rather trees be burnt than people killed.”
In nearby Kiryat Shmona, two Israelis were killed in a Hezbollah rocket barrage when they were walking their dogs in October 2024. While most of the 24,000 residents were evacuated soon after the war started, about 3,000 chose to stay, such as Ahi Natan, who serves as a reservist with the town’s local security committee.
His house, which he shares with his mother, sister, brother-in-law, and their young children, was damaged in a Hezbollah attack after they had evacuated. He said that Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah too soon.
“The fighting stopped at the wrong time because we don’t really like that it was finished,” he said. “We pushed Hezbollah back, but we think they’ll return and there will be another October 7 – this time, ‘northern style.’”
In fact, Israeli officials have said that they found widespread evidence that Hezbollah was planning an invasion of northern Israel similar to the Hamas attack of October 7 that killed 1,200 people and the sparked the war, which Hamas officials say has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Israel disputes this death toll and says it has killed about 17,000 armed fighters in Gaza. Some 100 Israelis, both alive and dead, remain in Hamas captivity.
About 1,000 houses in Kiryat Shmona were damaged, most from shrapnel after the Iron Dome intercepted the missiles aimed at the city. The interceptions sparked fires, which caused widespread damage. In some cases, windows were shattered, and homes were burglarized or damaged by animals who got in through the windows.
Since the ceasefire with Hezbollah was announced, many residents have returned to see the condition of their homes, said Yotam Degani, who works in resource development for the Kiryat Shmona municipality.
“People are definitely starting to come back to look at their houses,” Degani said. “But we are probably looking at a prolonged period of time until the residents will come back. We have to wait and see if the ceasefire holds.”
Various polls show that a significant number of residents do not plan to return in any case. One survey by the Maagar Mochot research group that was taken in October before the ceasefire with Hezbollah found that 70 percent of the evacuees from northern Israel are considering not returning home.
The study also found that many of the evacuees had employment challenges. Seven out of ten are earning less money than before they were displaced, and nearly one in three is out of work.
Degani estimated it would take months and millions of dollars to repair the infrastructure in Kiryat Shmona, as well as the homes that were damaged.
Many of the residents of northern Israel are deeply attached to their communities and say they want to return. Others say that they have already built new lives in other parts of the country and are not sure what the future holds.■