‘We can’t go back to pre-October 7th reality’ – Northerners

Residents of Kiryat Shmona wary about casualties from potential ground invasion, but urge decisive military victory over Hezbollah.

By World Israel News Staff

IDF soldiers and residents of Israel’s north are gearing up for a ground invasion of Lebanon, expressing that the move is critical for a decisive military victory over Hezbollah that would facilitate the return of the some 60,000 displaced and rehabilitation of the region.

Kiryat Shmona, the northernmost city in Israel, was evacuated shortly after the October 7th Hamas massacres. Since then, the city has endured near-daily missile, rocket, and explosive drone attacks that have damaged hundreds of homes and businesses.

Though Kiryat Shmona was officially evacuated, a small number of residents chose to remain.

IDF Major A, who was identified only by his first initial, stayed in Kiryat Shmona to guard the city as part of his reserve duty. His family relocated to Gush Etzion, near Jerusalem.

“It’s strange to drive along these roads, the way I used to take my kids to school and after-school activities, and see all these Shi’ite villages in the distance where they are shooting anti-tank misiles at us,” A told Ynet.

“We can’t go back to the reality where we’re constantly wondering if we’re under threat” from Lebanese villages directly adjacent to the border, he added.

Lilach Saadia, the manger of Nehamiah Mall who did not leave the city, told Ynet that arriving at the shopping center each morning “is like a punch to the stomach all over again.”

Saadia explained that all of the mall’s business, save for the Super-Pharm drugstore, have been shuttered for nearly a year.

“Seeing the display windows with last year’s Rosh HaShana specials” is a stark reminder that Kiryat Shmona has become a ghost town, she said.

Unlike many other residents of the north, Saadia is wary of a potential ground invasion of Lebanon.

“If there’s one thing I don’t want, it’s that,” she said. Her nephew, IDF soldier Liran Saadia, was killed as he participated in a ground incursion during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

“Every time I hear calls for a ground invasion, I think about the price that comes with that.”