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The Israeli threat to evacuate the residents of the border town of Shebaa, issued around 11:30 AM on Saturday, was not without cause. The depopulation of the town, nestled at the foot of the occupied hills, has been a goal of the ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon since October 8, 2023, coinciding with the war of annihilation on the Gaza Strip. Shebaa's civilians were among the first targets when the rules of engagement were still in effect. On October 14, 2023, the aggression targeted the home of 70-year-old farmer Khalil Ali and his wife, killing them both and forcing the residents of Shebaa to flee.
As a prelude to emptying Shebaa, which remains home to approximately 3,000 residents nearly a year after the Israeli aggression, another farming family was targeted, their home destroyed, killing all nine members inside. This crime was followed by threats to evacuate the town.
It was around 3:00 AM on Friday, September 27th. The Hussein Khalil Zahra family was just one hour away from starting their day tending to their flock of goats and cows, their livelihood. Normally, at dawn, the family would be busy milking the animals and preparing dairy products, while the shepherds among them would take the goats to the vicinity of their home in the Al-Sindiyana neighborhood, on the outskirts of nearby Shebaa. The Israeli occupation had prevented them from expanding their grazing lands to the distant, fertile hills.
But as they opened their eyes to begin what should have been a day of routine, a routine dictated by the daily lives of farming families, the Israeli aggression decided to end the lives of the entire family. A violent airstrike targeted their three-story home, destroying it and burying them alive, leaving them to endure an endless, blood-soaked, forced sleep.
There, less than a thousand meters from the barbed wire fence and the Naqqar pond that separate the residents of Shebaa from their lands in the occupied Shebaa Farms, Israel killed the nine members of the Zahra family: Hussein, the head of the family, his wife Ratiba Hamdan, their children: Khader, his wife, and their four-year-old son Ali; Hassan; their daughters Khadra (who was pregnant with her first child) and Duaa; and their grandson Youssef Hamdan (11 years old), the son of Nada, who is currently in Syria.
With the force of the explosion, Shebaa awoke to the shock of being targeted and to profound grief over the loss of an entire family. The residents of the border town could not believe that the Zahra family, who had never left Shebaa during any of the previous Israeli wars of aggression against Lebanon, had been chosen by this brutal aggression to displace Shebaa and its inhabitants. This was the crucial point emphasized by the town's mayor, Muhammad Hashem, in a conversation with Al-Mufakkira. The mayor believes that “this is Israel’s approach of destroying homes with their inhabitants inside in the South, the Bekaa Valley, and the Beirut suburbs. Today’s massacre in Shebaa is further proof of the occupation’s efforts to terrorize the residents and displace them from their homes, land, and livelihoods.” Israel targeted the Zahra family, whose members never abandoned their livestock or land. Locals constantly speak of their hard work and toil to earn a living. This family was known for their kindness and respect in their interactions with others, and for the warm smiles they offered to customers buying milk and dairy products.
Mukhtar Hashem supports his assertion that the Israeli crime against the Zahra family aims at the deliberate displacement of Shebaa and its residents by emphasizing that the targeted house was not inhabited by any political party members, nor was there any missile launch site or gunfire position nearby. He asks, “Why is this family being targeted if the goal isn’t to displace families attached to their land, livelihoods, and homes, sometimes through intimidation, sometimes through death threats, and culminating in today’s brutal and deliberate killing?” He points out that everyone who knows the Zahra family knows how resilient they have been despite the attacks and warnings, being a farming family whose sole source of income is raising livestock. They have always refused to be displaced or forced to leave their town and home. Therefore, according to the mukhtar, “Israel wants to turn the border villages and the area south of the Litani River into a scorched earth, completely depopulated.” This is confirmed by the targeting of unarmed civilians.”
Mukhtar Hashem takes us back to the beginnings of this aggression, specifically to October 14, 2023, when “Israel launched its massacres by firing mortar shells towards open areas surrounding the towns of Kfarshouba and Shebaa Farms. Khalil Asaad Ali and his wife, Zabad Hussein Akoum, were killed when their home in Shebaa was directly hit.” This resulted in the displacement of a number of Shebaa residents to Beirut, Jiyyeh, Dbayeh, and Wadi Zeina. Some owned homes in those areas, while others were forced to rent accommodation, fearing further attacks in the town. Over time, and with the deteriorating economic situation of the displaced families, the residents returned to the town and decided to remain.
With evident concern, Mukhtar Hashem expresses his legitimate fear, as he describes it, that today’s massacre will lead to the displacement of the town’s residents. A large number of its residents have already begun to leave, “although many of those who remain are still in the town.” Shebaa has no fewer than 3,000 inhabitants, who have long faced Israeli aggression and its relentless attempts to empty Shebaa of its people, steadfastly clinging to their land.
The Al-Sindiyana neighborhood, where the Zahra family chose to build their home "stone upon stone for years," has a beautiful story told by Jamil Daher, a Shebaa native who used to buy his dairy products from this house, which he found reduced to rubble this morning.
Standing in the neighborhood is the "Shebaa Oak," which has given the neighborhood its name. Signs bearing the name of this oak have been erected at the town's intersections, directing traffic to it after it became a tourist attraction for visitors to Shebaa, nestled in the hills of Jabal al-Summaq and on the northern slope of Jabal Rus, at the tri-border area of Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.
The Shebaa Oak is estimated to be between 500 and 600 years old, earning it the title of the largest and oldest in the region. Near its trunk, a structure so large it would take more than 15 people to lift it. To gather around her, trying to embrace her, Israel killed Zahra's family in the very spot they had chosen to build their home and remain steadfast, seeking refuge in its shade, resilience, and beauty. "We all know that this family would rather die than leave Shebaa," Daher says, concluding, "And so it was."
Today, the residents of Shebaa awoke to Israeli warnings demanding they evacuate their homes, according to media reports. Mukhtar Hashem said in an audio recording that he received a call from someone claiming to be from the Israeli army, who asked him, as the mukhtar, to inform the residents of Shebaa of the necessity to evacuate towards Awali. He noted that this was not a new call and that he had received a similar one on Monday, demanding the evacuation of Shebaa within two hours. He placed this within the context of the psychological warfare Israel is waging against the Lebanese people, addressing the residents of Shebaa by saying that the decision to evacuate rests with each individual in the town, and he will not make the decision on their behalf.