Hezbollah fighters during a military demonstration in front of the media on Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Aaramta. (Credit: Jad Abou Jaoudeh/OLJ)
On the phone from Sour, Amal, a mother of three in her 30s, is adamantly opposed to disarming Hezbollah, but she says there was a time she might have “maybe” accepted such an option — in the aftermath of the July 2006 war, for example, with the same two sides fighting.Back then, the cannons had fallen silent, the South was rebuilt, and life resumed under a fragile sense of mutual deterrence and “rules of engagement” that seemed to hold. “We thought we were safe. We had forgotten Israel was right next door,” said Amal, originally from Jibbayn in the Sour district.But the past 13 months changed everything. “Just look at what Israel did to us. My village was destroyed, our houses too… We can’t lay down our weapons,” said Amal, who believes the Lebanese Army cannot protect them. “Only the resistance defended us all these years. So many...
On the phone from Sour, Amal, a mother of three in her 30s, is adamantly opposed to disarming Hezbollah, but she says there was a time she might have “maybe” accepted such an option — in the aftermath of the July 2006 war, for example, with the same two sides fighting.Back then, the cannons had fallen silent, the South was rebuilt, and life resumed under a fragile sense of mutual deterrence and “rules of engagement” that seemed to hold. “We thought we were safe. We had forgotten Israel was right next door,” said Amal, originally from Jibbayn in the Sour district.But the past 13 months changed everything. “Just look at what Israel did to us. My village was destroyed, our houses too… We can’t lay down our weapons,” said Amal, who believes the Lebanese Army cannot protect them. “Only the resistance defended us all...
