Displaced residents of northern Israel demonstrated in Jerusalem on Sunday against a ceasefire deal in Gaza that Western leaders believe will also result in a cessation of hostilities on the Israel-Lebanon border.
According to the protest movement “Fighting for the North,” only military victory over Hezbollah can restore true security to the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights. And without true security, they won’t return to their homes.
Ever since October 7 of last year, when Hezbollah began shelling northern Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza, over 60,000 residents of Israel’s northern border region have been living in hotels and other accommodations further south, refugees in their own country. And this arrangement has been enormously expensive for the government. Everyone knows war is necessary to rectify the situation, but Western powers are determined to find a “diplomatic solution” even if it doesn’t delivery the sense of security the northerners demand.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that brought the Second Lebanon War to an end in 2006 called for the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces to north of the Litani River in central Lebanon. But the resolution was never enforced, and Hezbollah remains on the border, under which it has dug numerous attack tunnels into northern Israel and where it has deployed tens of thousands of rockets and missiles.
Several years ago, Israel Today correspondent Dr. Edy Cohen was given a tour of a Hezbollah cross-border invasion tunnel. See: Into the heart of a Hezbollah terror tunnel
Following the surprise Hamas invasion of Oct. 7, the residents of northern Israel are no longer willing to live under the shadow of such a threat, and insist that Resolution 1701 be implemented. And since Hezbollah isn’t about to voluntarily withdraw or disarm, that must be accomplished by force.
Hezbollah leaders now say they’ll stop firing on northern Israel if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. But Israelis know that will only delay the inevitable – a future Hezbollah invasion of the Galilee that will see tens of thousands dead and unprecedented destruction. Hezbollah has promised as much. It’s the sole purpose for the group’s existence.
“We won’t let anyone in the country sign a deal on our lives; sign a deal on your own lives. We are going home to full security,” insisted “Fighting for the North” protest leader Rephael Slav. “The IDF knows what to do. We will accept nothing less. We can’t return home under a surrender agreement. No one will return [to the north]. You [the government] have abandoned an entire region and must take it back with great force. Fight for our lives.”
The residents of the north know that a full-scale war in Lebanon could mean they remain displace for another year or more. And they are prepared for that, so long as there is a determined plan for victory that will allow them to one day return home in security.
What they will no longer accept is living in fear.
“War, now,” chanted the protesters.
