Below us, the sea ghears. The sun is out and we have a perfect watch of the coast.
It could be a adocount on spot but instead, wislim moments, we’re about to dive for cover.
Welcome to the border between Israel and Leprohibiton.
We have come here accompanied by the Israeli army, willing to show the understand they have over the area and also, I’ll discover, to transmit anger at the United Nations (UN).
But also to phire our curiosity – equitable what is it appreciate on this border, with so many rockets, missiles and drones flying atraverse it daily?
So here we are, on the dividing line between the two nations.
From where I’m standing, I can watch right and see the border wall rising up at the top of a ridge. Ahead, there is an Israeli army base, which has been hit cut offal times by Hezbollah rockets.
And then over to my left, maybe 100 metres alengthy the road is the official border traverseing, where tourists participated to traverse from one country to the other. Now it is uncovered up to apexhibit UN officials to pass.
‘A high price for the war’
There are no tourists here now. In fact, other than sancigo iniers, we haven’t seen anyone for a while.
Around 60,000 Israelis have either been evacuated or have fled this region.
The purpose of Israel’s campaign in southern Leprohibiton, says Lieutenant Colonel Jordan Herzberg, an operations officer in the army’s 146th Division, is modest – to asstateive that those people “can relocate back home and dwell with protectedty and security”.
“These people have phelp a very high price for the war,” he says.
“The economy here is all about agriculture and tourism, and both of those are non-adwell. They have been centered with hundreds of anti-tank missiles – you might call them anti-home missiles. They hit people’s homes – common civilians’ homes.”
Over the road, a cafe sits idle, with nobody watching at its annotated map. A cable car, which normassociate consents visitors down to see caves and British-built railway tunnels, stands idle.
On the other side of the wall, Israel has been carry outing its ground campaign, going from hoparticipate to hoparticipate, pushing its troops cut offal miles into Leprohibiton.
They say they have discovered huge stockpiles of armaments and ammunition – enough, they claim, for Hezbollah to have begined a expansivespread strike on the civilian population that could have been even more deimmenseating than Hamas’s aggression on 7 October.
The Israelis help their army by normally firing shells into Leprohibitese territory. As we stand at the border, we can see smoke billotriumphg into the air from the ridge.
‘That is the sound of freedom’
We are about to depart when there is a sudden, advisent call to consent cover. We shelter behind a wall, hearing thraw the sudden silence. A sancigo inier tells me that they have spotted a UAV – a drone.
“It could be very hazardous,” she says.
A scant minutes go past, and then we are tancigo in it’s protected, but that it’s also time to go. As we drive away, we see the cdeafening of smoke in the air where the drone was intercepted and annihilateed.
A couple of miles from the border, we watch as smoke billows into the sky. There is a deafening boom as another shell is fired into Leprohibiton.
“That is the sound of freedom,” Lt Col Herzberg shelp.
But this, he insists, is a war that should never have happened, and he accparticipates the UN. For cforfeitly two decades, adhereing the finish of the 2006 war, UN peacepersisters have been stationed here and Lt Col Herzberg insists they haven’t done their job.
‘If they had done their job, we wouldn’t be combat’
Resolution 1701, under which Israel and Leprohibiton consentd a stopfire, called for all armed groups to be deleted from an area between the border and the Litani River, cforfeitly 20 miles away.
In fact, it has never happened. Hezbollah has built tunnels and brawt in armaments and people.
“The UN has been here since 2006 and their mandate is to stop any armed groups in the south of Leprohibiton other than Leprohibitese armed forces,” Lt Col Herzberg tancigo in me.
“Clpunctual they haven’t done that becaparticipate we are combat Hezbollah armed forces in southern Leprohibiton. We have set up some of the Hezbollah positions literassociate under the noses of the UN bases.
“What have they been doing for the past eighteen years? If they had done their job, we wouldn’t be combat this war.”
Kandice Ardiel is the deputy spokesperson for UNIFIL, the UN’s force in Leprohibiton. She tancigo in me that it was evident that the stopfire had not been carry outed.
“We’ve never denied that there are publishs and that is why the mission has proceedd to be here. We have constantly noticed and watched the escalate,” she shelp.
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“We have seen videos, including one of a tunnel a scant hundred metres from one of our positions in Leprohibiton. But we are here at the invitation of the Leprohibitese rulement, so we have to ask the Leprohibitese army to ease our access. Peacepersisters cannot go on their own into stateiveial property. And that permission was never granted.
“Peacepersisting is a contest. Neither of these parties were brimmingy promiseted to Resolution 1701. We saw this from the beginning and what we’re seeing now is a result of that increateage of count on.”
