METULA, Israel (AP)
Ilan Rosenfeld walks through the charred remains of his café, crunching over shattered plates and rusted Hezbollah rocket fragments. For 40 years, this was his life’s work. Now, it is a burnt-out shell in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town, encircled on three sides by Lebanon.
“Everything I had, everything I saved, everything I built—it’s all burned,” he says, scanning the rubble. “Every day I wake up, and all I have left are tears.”
Rosenfeld was one of tens of thousands driven from their homes after war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah in October 2023, following Hamas’s attack in southern Israel. Now, one year into a fragile ceasefire, many have returned to a landscape of ruin and uncertainty.
Israel’s government says most northern residents have come back, yet towns like Metula—once at the heart of the fighting—remain half-empty, their streets still bearing the scars of conflict. Amid renewed cross-border strikes, many remain skeptical of official promises of safety, caught between the trauma of the past and a precarious, shell-pocked present.
By James Kisoo
