NAQURA (AFP) – Some displaced residents of southern Lebanon returned yesterday to their towns for a key Muslim holiday to pray and mourn loved ones killed in months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Today is Aidiladha, but it’s completely different this year,” said teacher Rabab Yazbek, 44, at a cemetery in the coastal town of Naqura, from which many residents have fled. Every family has lost someone, “whether a relative, friend or neighbour”, Yazbek said, adding that two people she had taught had been killed.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily cross-border fire. The violence has killed at least 473 people in Lebanon, including 92 civilians, according to AFP.
At the cemetery, women in black chadors consoled each other at the shiny new graves adorned with flowers and large pictures of the dead.
The Naqura municipality said it had coordinated with the Lebanese army so that residents could safely visit the cemetery and mosque for two hours for Aidiladha.
Residents reportedly returned to a number of south Lebanon border villages yesterday morning as part of similar initiatives.
In Naqura, a damaged sign reading “thank you for your visit” lay along the highway. Amid the concrete rubble, the shattered glass of a family photo lay scattered on the ground.
Rawand Yazbek, 50, was inspecting her clothing shop, whose glass store front had been destroyed, though the rest remained largely intact. “As you can see… our stores are full of goods,” she said, pointing to shelves and racks of colourful clothes.
Lebanese official media reported Israeli bombardment in the country’s south over the weekend, as well as a deadly strike yesterday. Hezbollah said later that one of its fighters had been killed.
More than 95,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced by the hostilities, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration. Tens of thousands have also been displaced on the Israeli side of the frontier.
