A man called Haider, whose family owned the house, insisted on taking me to visit it. Outside, a poster remembered his brother, a Hezbollah fighter, who had been killed in the war. Haider said he wanted to prove there was nothing wrong there, appearing to believe that by being in the media he would, somehow, be protected. “You can enter room by room and check with your own eyes,” he said. It is difficult for us to confirm what could be happening here. He later said: “We want stability, we don’t want war, or anything related to it.”
Just months ago, it would have been almost impossible to have a conversation like this or even talk to people without being approached by Hezbollah members. Haider complained about how unsafe he felt, and I asked him what Hezbollah should do. He did not give me a straight answer but said: “We’re done. We’re worn out.”
Despite the warning, Israel has not attacked the village.
In a televised speech earlier this month, Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s secretary general, addressed the issue of Israel’s continued attacks, warning that “everything has a limit”. He said the group would “never” surrender its weapons, which he called the “source of its strength”.
“The enemy,” Qassem said, referring to Israel and the United States, “wants to erase our life and our existence, but we’ll remain steadfast. We’ll either live with dignity or die with dignity.”
Hezbollah’s arsenal, more powerful than that of the country’s own army, has long divided the Lebanese. Opponents accuse Hezbollah of dragging Lebanon into wars and of defending the interests of the group’s main backer, Iran. They see this as a unique opportunity to disarm it. But President Aoun, who is a former army chief, has refused to use force against Hezbollah, saying this could exacerbate sectarian divisions and lead to a civil war. If the authorities were not careful, Aoun said in April, “we’ll lead Lebanon to ruin”.
A Western diplomat familiar with the discussions told me the Lebanese authorities were under increasing pressure from the Trump administration, which was frustrated with the pace of the efforts and supported Israel’s actions in Lebanon. “Some are seeing this as the ‘Lebanese way’ of doing things,” the diplomat said about the disarmament plans, and “aren’t convinced” it can work.
The army is expected to announce it has completed the disarmament of the group in the areas south of the Litani next month. The army, an intelligence officer told me, would then turn its attention to other parts of the country – Hezbollah’s presence is also significant in the Dahieh and the eastern Bekaa Valley. This will be a more challenging, and risky, mission without the group’s consent, and there is no timeline for that.