For months after the Israel-Hezbollah battle that devastated southern Lebanon, the Alawieh household would go to a hillside close to their ruined house to catch no matter glimpse they may of what remained.
Their olive timber had been gone. So had been their goats, and the lemon and fig orchards that had taken years to bear fruit. Their home was only a pile of rubble.
Israel had agreed to a Jan. 26 deadline — two months after a cease-fire took impact — to withdraw its remaining forces from southern Lebanon. That day, Mousa Alawieh set out together with his three teenage youngsters and a cousin, desperate to see what was left of their house within the border city of Aitaroun.
Mr. Alawieh, 45, a metallic employee, had been displaced for greater than a yr and struggling to make ends meet. He had hoped to salvage no matter possessions he might from the wreckage, members of the family stated.
However he by no means made it house.
As he and his household had been driving by means of their flattened city, they encountered at the least two Israeli troopers on the street who shot a number of occasions on the household’s automotive, killing Mr. Alawieh, in keeping with video footage verified by The New York Occasions and accounts from his brother and brother-in-law.
Requested in regards to the taking pictures of Mr. Alawieh, the Israeli army stated the matter was “below overview.”
Israel had delayed its withdrawal that day, however Mr. Alawieh was unaware and believed the army had begun to drag out of Aitaroun, in keeping with Yaacoub Alawieh, his brother.
The displaced are unsure about whether or not Israel will stay indefinitely in Lebanon and when they may be capable to return house. A lot of their cities and villages now lie in ruins, and it is usually unclear who will foot the mammoth invoice for reconstruction.
After Israel and Lebanon agreed to increase the Jan. 26 withdrawal deadline, Israeli forces continued to occupy giant parts of southern Lebanon. A brand new date for the withdrawal was set for Tuesday, and Israeli forces pulled out of the remaining populated cities and villages alongside the border.
However the Israeli army stated this week that it meant to remain at various strategic factors inside Lebanon past the deadline for its full withdrawal.
Israel as soon as occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years, and with every delay within the pullout, fears of one other extended occupation have grown.
The most recent battle started brewing after the shock Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah started attacking Israeli positions in solidarity with Hamas, its ally.
After practically a yr of low-level clashes, Israel launched a full-scale offensive in September, assassinating a lot of Hezbollah’s leaders and destroying a lot of its weapons stockpiles. It was Lebanon’s most harmful battle in a long time.
Israel has issued a collection of warnings to residents of southern Lebanon — together with on Jan. 26 — to not return to their hometowns but as a result of its army forces had been nonetheless deployed there. However hundreds of Lebanese have defied these orders of their eagerness to go house.
Israeli forces killed at the least 24 folks in southern Lebanon on Jan. 26 alone, in keeping with Lebanon’s well being ministry, and extra had been killed within the days that got here after.
Mr. Alawieh was so excited to go house that he didn’t even examine the information that day, his brother stated, so he was below the impression that Israeli troops had begun to withdraw to the outskirts of Aitaroun.
However as his automotive rounded a bend within the city, at the least two Israeli troopers immediately emerged within the street forward, in keeping with video footage filmed from contained in the automobile by Ali, Mr. Alawieh’s 15-year-old son.
Mr. Alawieh panicked and slammed his automobile into reverse. The household raised their palms within the air. A gunshot rang out — one, two, then 20 — a salvo of bullets puncturing metallic and glass and pores and skin.
“Get down, Dad, get down!” shouted Ali from the again seat, his sisters screaming in concern.
“No, Dad!” shouted Ali. “Dad! Dad! Dad!”
As their father started to bleed, the Israeli troopers ordered the kids out of the automotive and questioned them, Mr. Alawieh’s brother stated, relaying what he was instructed by his members of the family who had been within the automotive on the time. The troopers then instructed them to stroll straight forward with out wanting again. They left their father behind within the automotive, wounded however nonetheless alive.
Rukaya Alawieh, Mr. Alawieh’s 18-year-old daughter, was wounded within the taking pictures and it took her an hour to succeed in the closest hospital to search out her father assist. By the point the ambulance arrived on the automotive, he was lifeless.
Like many different residents of southern Lebanon, Mr. Alawieh was affiliated with Hezbollah, in keeping with his brother. However he was not a fighter or a full-fledged member, the brother stated. Hezbollah has lengthy operated a roster of social and humanitarian companies in lieu of Lebanon’s ailing state, and Mr. Alawieh grew to become concerned within the group’s social work shortly earlier than his demise.
Many residents who’ve been in a position to return to their properties in southern Lebanon have typically arrived again to search out nothing left standing.
The prolonged Alawieh household misplaced 11 of their properties, stated Marwan Qassem, Mr. Alawieh’s brother-in-law, who owned a home in Aitaroun and likewise ran a big household farm there, each now in ruins.
“Once I noticed the injury to the home, I requested myself, the place do I start?” he stated.
Throughout the battle, Mr. Qassem and Mr. Alawieh spent months bouncing between non permanent lodging with their households, making an attempt to flee Israel’s widening offensive.
First they fled the border area to an space the place the airstrikes quickly struck. Then they headed for the capital, Beirut, however that was bombed too. It was a seemingly limitless loop, trying to find security, however by no means fairly secure.
As we speak, his household is in limbo, nonetheless unable to return house and consumed with grief over their losses. Pressured to put their father to relaxation away from the household cemetery in Aitaroun, the kids have struggled to course of what occurred, Mr. Qassem stated.
Ali’s cheeky snicker has given option to reticence. And Rukaya, his elder sister who scrambled to search out assist after their father was shot, is traumatized.
“Generally she is silent,” Mr. Qassem stated. “Generally she cries.”
Arijeta Lajka and Myra Noveck contributed reporting.
