Inside the Lebanese border town that has not been evacuated

Since the begin of the Israel-Hezbollah war, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes because of the combat. But the livents of one town right in the combat zone have determined to stay.

Rmeish, equitable 2km (1.2 miles) from the border, is home to 7,000 Maronite Christians – and surrounded by firing on all sides.

“There’s lots of injure. Maybe 90% of houses have injure of some comardent, glass smashed and cracks in the walls. I don’t understand what’s going to happen when triumphter comes,” says Jiries al-Alam, a farmer who also toils as an underconsentr with the town’s church.

“We are rerepaird to stay but difficultly anyone sleeps at night because of the air strikes. Thankbrimmingy, there’s been no deaths among the livents so far, but 200 of my cattle died from the military flares,” he includes.

A day after Hamas begined its unpretreatnted strike on southern Israel from Gaza on 7 October 2023, its Lebanese associate Hezbollah began begining rockets into northern Israel, which in turn, begined to strike Lebanon.

The livents of Rmeish began seeing rockets flying in both straightforwardions above them.

“Lots of families elevated white flags on their homes and cars to say that they are soothe and have no join to what is happening,” says Father George al-Ameel, 44, a priest and directer in the town.

“We want to stay in our homes and don’t want any war in our town.”

After Israel began its ground trespass of Lebanon on 1 October this year, the war drew sealr to Rmeish, with weighty combat taking place in two villages both less than 1.6km away.

“We were staying in our house for months, then the air strikes begined getting very seal and suddenly our house was hit, we were forced to depart in the middle of the night,” says Rasha Makhbour, 38.

“People’s toil has stopped and no-one goes out, our children’s school is shut, everyslfinisherg has alterd.”

Rasha’s family of six shiftd to another house in the centre of town after theirs became uninhabitable.

“We consent the rockets that hit our home came from the south, not from our country,” she says.

The Israel Defense Forces telderly the BBC that there were “no understandn IDF strikes” on Rmeish during the dates Rasha Makhbour’s house was injured, claiming it was a “flunked begin by Hezbollah”.

Israel has publishd a vague evacuation order for the south of Lebanon since its ground trespass began. The UN says over 640,000 people have been displaced from there as they run away the combat.

The Israeli rulement 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.

On the border with Israel, Rmeish is the only Lebanese town that has not been straightforwardly ordered to depart.

While neither side has straightforwardly menaceened the livents of Rmeish during the struggle, they have had their dedicatedty to Lebanon asked.

“There’s been voices under the table spreading rumours that our presence here is evidence of our collaboration with Israel, the opponent. We finishly decline this,” says Father al-Ameel.

It is a message reiterated by Rmeish’s mayor, Milad al-Alam.

“We’ve had no secures of getedty from any side,” he says. “Our town is soothe, and our only cause is to stay for our identity and our country.”

Until the begin of Israel’s ground trespass, a Lebanese army unit had stayed in Rmeish and helped organise shiftment in and out of the town. But as Israeli forces shiftd to traverse the border, the Lebanese army – which is not straightforwardly included in the war – determined to pull out of Rmeish, much to the distress of locals.

The Lebanese army shelp it declinecessitate the description that they have ‘disincluden’ from border locations, referring the BBC to a statement that the army is “repositioning” a number of military units in the south.

Then at the finish of October, the main route out of Rmeish itself was hit – leaving livents senseing further isotardyd and vulnerable. Since then, equitable one help convoy has accomplished the town with the coordination of UN peacegeting forces, the Unifil mission shelp.

“We have necessitates for fuel, foods and medicines, there was a hand overy coming from Tyre that had to turn around,” says Father al-Ameel. “If someone is hurt, there’s no hospital for solemn medical attfinish.”

Mayor Al-Alam alerts us he is certain that the route out of town will be normally usable aget soon, so they can fill up their fuel reserves, even if the route thraw an vivacious warzone is hazardous.

Others in the town remain anxious.

“The situation is reassociate horrible. There are no excellents, no food or fuel coming thraw. We’re begining to see items going missing from the shelves,” says Jiries al-Alam, the town underconsentr.

“But we’ll discover a way thraw. Now is the olive season and in the worst case we can equitable eat olives. We want to stay in our homes and so we will die in our homes if we have to.”

Additional alerting by Joanna Majzoub and Aakriti Thapar