{"id":577614,"date":"2026-08-07T14:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/577614\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:16:09","slug":"under-the-shadow-of-occupation-lebanese-village-living-by-israels-unwritten-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/577614\/","title":{"rendered":"Under the shadow of occupation: Lebanese village living by Israel\u2019s unwritten rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli<\/a> forces descended on<\/a> Mohammad El Hage and his colleague as they funnelled diesel into the generator that powers the water supply to their village, Kfarshouba \u2013 one of the few remaining populated villages in south Lebanon<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The two men, who work for the Kfarshouba municipality, were handcuffed and made to stand against a wall at gunpoint as Israeli soldiers snatched their phones and searched their pickup truck. It was June, and Mr El Hage had made the same trip countless times over the previous two months, ever since Israeli forces destroyed the electricity pole carrying power lines to Kfarshouba\u2019s water pump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked, \u2018What are you doing here?\u2019\u201d Mr El Hage recalled. \u201cWe told them: \u2018We’re pumping water for the village.\u2019 Then one of them replied: \u2018Don’t you know you’re forbidden from coming here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They did not, in fact, know that. As they had every time a visit to the generator was warranted, the municipality had taken care to co-ordinate the trip in advance with the UN peacekeeping force, Unifil, which had in turn secured approval from the Israeli army. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was routine,\u201d Mr El Hage said. <\/p>\n

The two municipal employees were blindfolded, taken to a military base that \u2013 by Mr El Hage\u2019s estimate \u2013 was probably in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, and interrogated for hours before they were eventually released and forced to walk back to their village at night.<\/p>\n

The generator incident is just one episode in a saga that has upended the lives of Kfarshouba’s residents, now among the last remaining people in a seven-kilometre-deep belt of land under Israeli occupation. It is a life punctuated by restricted freedom of movement, home raids, and the destruction of farmland.<\/p>\n

For months, Israeli forces have blocked the municipality from repairing the electricity infrastructure that powers the village’s water pump, leaving the village reliant on a diesel-powered generator that burns through $500 worth of fuel a day to keep the water running \u2013 and forcing municipal employees to make the same perilous trip that led to Mr El Hage\u2019s brief abduction.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we have to take diesel to the generator to pump water. Every single day,\u201d Mr El Hage said. <\/p>\n

When Mr El Hage spoke to The National a month after his abduction, the municipality had that morning received permission from the Israeli army to erect a new electricity pole to power the village’s water pump \u2013 eliminating the need for daily diesel deliveries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [Unifil] told us permission had finally been granted. We hired a truck. Loaded the electricity pole. Prepared all the materials. Then they came back and said the approval was withdrawn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt keeps happening. Exactly the same story every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Israel launches new strikes on southern Lebanon<\/p>\n

The threat of detention for venturing beyond invisible boundaries is only one grievance for Kfarshouba’s residents, a population permitted to remain in their village by the same foreign army that invaded, then occupied, their country during the four-month war with Hezbollah. <\/p>\n

Staying came at a high cost. Like a handful of other Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian villages in the south, Kfarshouba was spared the depopulation and destruction that befell neighbouring villages \u2013 but only on the condition that its residents shelter no members of Hezbollah or its affiliates, and, by extension<\/a>, no displaced people from nearby Shiite Muslim villages.<\/p>\n

Residents now live under the shadow of four Israeli military positions on the Jabal Al Sheikh mountain range overlooking their village \u2013 three long-standing and the fourth a recently erected point base in Rabaa Al Teben, in the Kfarshouba foothills.<\/p>\n

And, they say, they no longer know where its boundaries lie.<\/p>\n

Access to their orchards and farms on the outskirts of the village is restricted; the line between what remains accessible and what Israel has deemed off-limits is blurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a single resident dares enter their own land. Not because we’ve officially been told it’s forbidden, but because nobody knows where the danger begins,\u201d said Mr El Hage. <\/p>\n

The population must navigate the unwritten rules of Israeli occupation, which residents describe as arbitrary, enforced not through direct communication, but through gunfire, arrests and occasional raids. <\/p>\n

That fear was reinforced in May, when three day-labourers from the Kfarshouba suburb of Halta were abducted by Israeli forces while harvesting the land. They have not been seen or heard from since.<\/p>\n

‘No outsiders’<\/p>\n

The sound of Israeli soldiers banging on his door in the middle of the night, waking his terrified family, has haunted Imad Saadeldin, an elected village official. It happened in late March, but the incident remains so etched in his mind that he and his family have not returned to live in their home on the edge of the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they were there to kill us,\u201d he told The National in his money transfer office. After the raid, he moved his family to a relative\u2019s house deeper inside the village and relocated his office away from the area.<\/p>\n

The soldiers entered the house, handcuffed Mr Saadeldin and his son, and made them kneel at gunpoint. His wife had one request: that their adult son, who has special needs, be spared from violence. A soldier struck their son in the head immediately after she pleaded for his protection, Mr Saadeldin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a psychological occupation. Even months later, if I go to my own house to collect something, I feel as though they’re standing behind the wall watching me,\u201d he said. \u201cYou may not physically see soldiers all the time, but they’re always there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several other homes were raided that night. The operation lasted about two hours before the soldiers left, taking one of Mr Saadeldin’s cousins into custody. He was released four hours later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us: ‘You can stay. But don’t let anyone come here. Otherwise we’ll have to destroy the village and empty it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The order is consistent with statements from Kfarshouba mayor Al Qassem Al Qadri and the mayors of other towns in the south with predominantly Sunni Muslim, Druze, or Christian residents. When the war erupted in early March, The National spoke with mayors and elected officials who received phone calls from Israeli phone numbers, each instructing them to prevent anyone who might have Hezbollah affiliation from living among them, including displaced people.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israel has destroyed<\/a>, partially or completely, at least 60 villages within the occupied border belt \u2013 Israel’s so-called security zone \u2013 displacing hundreds of thousands from the predominantly Shiite south. It also appears to be entrenching its occupation in south Lebanon rather than preparing to withdraw, through demolishing, in whole or part, those very villages.<\/p>\n

Rights groups and legal experts have warned that Israel’s actions, by preventing the population from returning home, may amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer. <\/p>\n

Israel describes its presence in southern Lebanon as a \u201csecurity zone\u201d \u2013 a term that has no legal status under international humanitarian law. Acknowledging an occupation would trigger Israel’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions, which include protecting civilians, safeguarding public and private property, and administering the occupied territory while maintaining, as far as possible, the existing legal and administrative order, according to Aaron Kerney, an international human rights lawyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, military necessity cannot justify transferring people or preventing them from returning because of their religion,\u201d Mr Kerney said. Israel’s threats to subject still-populated villages to the same fate as emptied Shiite villages, he added, could amount to collective punishment or prohibited measures of intimidation.<\/p>\n

Constant surveillance<\/p>\n

In Kfarshouba, people do not leave their homes after 7pm, according to Walid Nasser, a retired General Security officer in his 50s. <\/p>\n

Raids and detentions have become less frequent since Lebanon and Israel signed a framework to end hostilities. But residents say the occupation has settled into a quieter rhythm: Israeli troops still patrol the outskirts, surveilling villagers, bulldozing through and burning farmland, and routinely firing into the air. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re still scared,\u201d Mr Nasser said wearily. \u201cEvery day Israelis carry out patrols. Every day there’s shooting. Morning. Night. Sometimes it feels like they’re simply sweeping the area with gunfire. Perhaps it’s to intimidate people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He welcomed The National into his family\u2019s home on the edge of Kfarshouba, overlooking the village’s outskirts. Shrapnel from Israeli shelling nearby had struck the house just two days earlier. Three months before that, it was raided by Israeli troops while he was away.<\/p>\n

It is the least of his problems: although it is visible from the terrace of his home, he can no longer reach a 15-dunum (1.5 hectare) stretch of land on the lush outskirts, where he built a small house surrounded by walnut, almond, cherry and apple trees. Another 12 dunums of olive groves in the foothills are also beyond his reach. He is visibly pained at the mention of harvest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are ancestral lands inherited from our parents and grandparents,\u201d he explained as he gazed into the distance at a bulldozed trail where Israeli forces conduct troop movements on his land. \u201cI can’t reach any of it now. This house where we’re standing now is all that’s left for me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli strategy in the populated villages of south Lebanon is reminiscent of other Israeli occupations in Syria and the Palestinian territories. In neighbouring Syria, where Israel’s army occupied additional territory<\/a> in the Quneitra and Deraa provinces after the fall of the regime of Bashar Al Assad, residents are prevented from accessing farmland, living in fear of Israeli raids and patrols. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, does not have a military presence in any of those areas.<\/p>\n

Israeli military activity<\/p>\n

In Kfarshouba, residents say Israeli military operations never stopped despite the framework agreement that came into effect in June, which provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces turned Rabaa Al Teben, on a foothill overlooking a resort area where residents of Kfarshouba and visitors would enjoy summers, into a fourth military point that looms over the town. And last week, bulldozers razed a path on the opposite hill, raising suspicions among residents of further troop entrenchment or a new military post.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we hear the sound of military vehicles. Gunfire. Shelling,\u201d Mr Nasser told The National. \u201cThey move around the outskirts constantly. Four or five times a day sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he spoke, loud explosions filled the air. The sounds came from Shiite villages of Khiam and Arnoun, in the near distance, where Israel continues carrying out demolitions. <\/p>\n

Mr Nasser excused himself for a minute, then returned carrying a pair of binoculars. The destruction of Khiam, across the mountain, was visible despite the clouds of dust and debris from Israeli bulldozers hanging heavy over the ridge. <\/p>\n

Three days after The National visited Kfarshouba, permission was once again granted, through Unifil, to repair the electricity pole. This time, a municipal team managed to erect the pole under a Unifil escort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fired over our heads after a few hours had passed, but we were able to get the pole set up,\u201d Mr El Hage said.<\/p>\n

The work, however, remains incomplete. Electricity lines still have to be laid to the pole, requiring more rounds of approval from the Israeli side.<\/p>\n

The following day, Mr El Hage said Israeli troops and tanks again entered the village outskirts from two directions, bulldozing new tracks through farmland, burning large tracts of olive groves on the mountainside, and sweeping the agricultural valley below with machine-gun fire. <\/p>\n

He filmed the blaze as it consumed the olive trees, some more than a century old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’ve been here since early morning,\u201d Mr El Hage told The National by phone. He sent photographs showing smoke rising above the village. \u201cOne of the fires is in the valley below the municipal building and the mosque” \u2013 both destroyed during the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war \u2013 “and the tanks are still moving above us in the hills.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the areas bulldozed and burnt, he said, is close to the newly erected electricity pole, leaving him doubtful that the village’s water infrastructure will ever be fixed. <\/p>\n

Until the main power supply is restored, Mr El Hage will remain tied to the daily ritual of trucking diesel to the backup generator despite the risk it poses to him and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to keep the water flowing,\u201d he said. \u201cSo people can continue living in Kfarshouba.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli forces descended on Mohammad El Hage and his colleague as they funnelled diesel into the generator that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[64519,85,46,88,43,2865,789],"class_list":["post-577614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-foreign-desk-team","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-news","tag-standard","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}