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‘We need to bring another blow’: Northern Israeli residents react to Hezbollah ‘pager attack’

Northern residents were forced to evacuate their homes when Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones in October.

By Anna Epshtein, TPS

In the lobby of the Jerusalem Royal Hotel, despair mixed with hope for evacuated residents of the northern community of Shlomi as they watched news reports of Hezbollah’s exploding communication devices on Wednesday.

They hope that the “pager attack,” as they referred to it, is the beginning of a new phase of war with Hezbollah they have been calling for so they can safely return to their homes, they told The Press Service of Israel.

Thousands of Hezbollah operatives were injured when their pagers and walkie-talkies blew up on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hezbollah said 32 of its people were killed, a number that has not been independently verified.

“It was good to hear,” Inbar Ben Arush, a manicurist and a mother of two, tells TPS-IL.

“And don’t get me wrong, I am not happy about the war. I was a leftist before October 7, but my conceptions have changed. We don’t have a partner for peace there. We tried for almost a year to find some diplomatic solution. And we know too well that without a serious army operation in Lebanon, we won’t be able to get back home,” she adds while setting up a table for a manicure.

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Sitting nearby with her knitting, Mazal Hakim asks, “How long can you live in a hotel? It’s good for three days, maybe a week. We have been here for almost a year. We broke here, became sick. Almost all of the grown-ups.”

At another table, Braina Wasserman plays a card game with her teenage granddaughter. The game is called “touch” and it’s not clear who is winning. Braina tells TPS-IL she has been playing this for hours with the kids from Shlomi because “It helps the time pass.”

As a boy aimlessly walks his bicycle back and forth near the table, Braina tells TPS-IL, “It’s not nice to be happy about somebody’s death, but I was happy. For what they did to us, they do not deserve mercy.”

Braina does not believe the “pager attack” will get her home any time soon. “I know I’ll be here for the holidays, and maybe for another year, too,” she says. Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year, begins on October 2 at sundown.

Meir Navon, a retired naval officer, is on the phone trying to obtain a shofar, a ram’s horn traditionally blown during the High Holidays.

Evacuees pray in an improvised synagogue in the lobby. “After this attack, the enemy is on the floor, and we can’t let him stand up again. We need to bring another blow, and then another one, until he is destroyed,” Navon told TPS-IL.

“I was disappointed that after the attack Israel did not start a ground operation in Lebanon immediately. We are too merciful,” he adds.

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Meir’s friend, Mahluf Tubul nods in agreement. One of the founders of Shlomi in the 1950s, Tubul remarks, “If Israel does not enter the war in the north, we will lose it.”

On Monday, the Security Cabinet updated its official war goals to include the secure return of 60,000 evacuated northern residents to their homes.

Northern residents were forced to evacuate their homes when Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones in October. Hezbollah leaders have said they will continue the attacks to prevent Israelis from returning to their homes.

The attacks have so far killed 26 civilians and 20 soldiers on the Israeli side.

According to figures released by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) Hezbollah fired 1,307 rockets at northern Israel in August, an average of 40 rockets daily. Since October 8, Hezbollah has launched more than 6,700 rockets and drones.

Israeli officials have been calling for Hezbollah to be disarmed and removed from southern Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Israel’s three other official war goals are the eradication of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the return of all hostages, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.

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At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.