TYRE: When Ines Tehini and her family fled their south Lebanon village after Hezbollah and Israel began exchanging fire in October, she thought they would be home in a matter of days.

But nearly four months later in a school turned shelter, her hopes for a swift return to normality have faded after Israeli strikes badly damaged the family home in Aita Al Shaab on the border, said the mother of three.

“My brother’s apartment on the floor above me was completely burnt down, and the floor where I live also sustained damage,” she said from a classroom in the south Lebanon city of Tyre.

“If I could, I would rent an apartment in Tyre, but I can’t afford it,” said Tehini, 37, as her toddler played on mattresses strewn on the floor.

“I don’t know what will become of us,” she added.

The Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed near-daily exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, over the past four months.

Over 200 people have been killed in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also at least 26 civilians.

In northern Israel, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed.

The violence has displaced more than 86,000 Lebanese, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

People in south Lebanon said their homes and livelihoods had been destroyed in the fighting, which has heaped misery on a population already battered by a four-year economic crisis.

Rebuilding from scratch

Tehini’s husband, a soldier, earns $150 per month _ barely enough to support the family even before they fled.

Fighting back tears, she said her family home had been destroyed in 2006, when Israel and Hezbollah fought a full-blown war.

Recent Israeli strikes also damaged many of her neighbours’ property and livestock, Tehini said.

“All those people will have to rebuild their lives from scratch,” she added.

Several frontline villages in Lebanon have sustained heavy damage, with the state news agency reporting Israeli strikes on houses.

Following the strikes, Hezbollah has sometimes announced the death of its fighters.

In a classroom further down the hall, Hafez Mustafa, from the border village of Beit Lif, said his children had to drop out of school or university after he lost all his livestock and access to his crops.

“My daughters had to stop their university studies because we were $400 short” on tuition fees, said the 47-year-old, deep lines etched on his forehead.

The Israeli army bombed a farm he co-owned with a friend, killing or scattering some of his cows, he said.

He had to sell his remaining livestock because he had no money to feed them, and it was too dangerous to return to work in his olive groves.

“All my livelihood is gone,” he said.

“We’re tired. This war has dragged on for too long. We can’t take it anymore.”

Awaiting a truce

The Tyre district hosts more than 27,000 people displaced by the conflict, more than 700 of them living in makeshift shelters, according to the IOM.

The Lebanese state has been cash-strapped for years, leaving host communities now to rely largely on humanitarian organisations for aid.

“We are unable to provide basic necessities,” said Mortada Mhanna, who heads Tyre’s disaster management unit, standing in a workroom abuzz with volunteers and civil servants.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2024