MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Two years ago, Hezbollah started firing rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon. The attacks were in support of Hamas, which had attacked southern Israel from Gaza the day before. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah left the militia's leadership decimated. And despite a ceasefire that came into effect almost a year ago, Israeli airstrikes and demolitions have erased entire neighborhoods of Lebanese villages and killed more than 300 people. NPR's Jane Arraf and Jawad Rizkallah traveled along the border in south Lebanon and found that Israel's military is ensuring Lebanese villagers do not move back.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEBRIS KNOCKING)
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: We're in a cemetery in the Lebanese border village of Houla, in front of a marble monument now defaced and broken. The impact isn't as consequential as the demolished homes nearby. But it's a sign that the war, officially frozen last year, and the attempt to erase history still rages.
ABDUL AZIZ SHARIM: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Retired schoolteacher Abdul Aziz Sharim (ph) tells us almost 100 people are buried here. They were killed in 1948 by Israeli officers, later tried for war crimes in what became known as the Houla massacre.
SHARIM: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: He finds the names of his grandfather and grandmother on the damaged plaque.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL CLANKING)
ARRAF: Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting across the Lebanese border since the Iran-backed militia started firing rockets at the beginning of the war in Gaza in 2023. Israeli attacks significantly weakened the militant group. After the ceasefire last November, when Hezbollah fighters withdrew from the border, Israeli soldiers occupied the village. They scrawled over the names with black spray paint and then smashed it in pieces. They left this message in Hebrew graffiti next to a Star of David, the only good Shia is a dead Shia.
SHARIM: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "The Israelis took this entire village. They wanted to make the point that we are here. They wanted vengeance," Sharim says of the latest destruction. The Israeli military, in response to an NPR query, says after the desecration, it reinforced procedures unspecified to prevent such incidents in the future. Despite the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, U.N. peacekeepers say Israel has continued regular attacks in south Lebanon. In their latest six-month report issued in July, the peacekeeping mission recorded 440 Israeli attacks into Lebanon. It recorded just one by Hezbollah into Israel.
SHARIM: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: In Houla, Sharim says Israeli military bulldozers leveled homes and rigged others with explosives. His was one of 55 houses the village mayor says Israel destroyed after the ceasefire.
SHARIM: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "This was my house," Sharim says. It was a three-story home he built after years of working abroad. Now it's a mountain of rubble. I'm looking at gauzy curtains that have been caught in a tree, and they're floating with the wind among the leaves. Everywhere you look here, there are remnants of people's lives. Almost all of it buried by chunks of concrete and metal bars.
SHARIM: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Sharim, who's 74, pulls some loose pages from the rubble. He says losing his library is what hurts the most. He had about 1,000 books - philosophy, science, history - some irreplaceable. Nearby is a creased faded postcard depicting the Virgin Mary, used as a bookmark.
SHARIM: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "I don't differentiate between Christian or Muslim or Jew," he says. The Zionists who killed his grandparents and destroyed his house, he says, are a different matter. Sharim says he used to harvest 200 pounds of pomegranates every season and sell the juice. But almost all the trees have been destroyed. It's dangerous here most days. Israel is still targeting what it says are Hezbollah fighters, and it drops stun grenades on civilians trying to rebuild.
(CROSSTALK)
ARRAF: Resident Miriam Masrani (ph) has come to take a quick look at what's left of her house.
MIRIAM MASRANI: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "We are lost," she says. "We need to know what will happen. Will our land be returned to us, or will they take it away from us? Will we be displaced again?" The United States has floated turning these centuries old villages into a Lebanese economic zone. It says, to help Israel feel secure. Sharim carries the keys to his demolished house even though it no longer has walls or doors. He and his neighbors say they won't give up their homes, but neither can they rebuild while Israel is launching attacks.
Jane Arraf, NPR News, in Houla, southern Lebanon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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