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Israelis Evacuated from Lebanese Border Wonder When They'll Return Home
(AP) Melanie Lidman - For four years, Sivan Shoshani Partush recruited families for Kibbutz Malkiya, a community of 400 that she calls her "little slice of heaven." It wasn't a hard sell: spacious homes, beautiful nature, paths winding through manicured lawns, and a slower pace of life than in Israel's frantic cities. The border with Lebanon is just 200 meters away. Among 60,000 Israelis evacuated from northern Israel after months of cross-border fighting, Partush and her children are staying temporarily in another kibbutz. Lebanon's Hizbullah began launching rockets toward Israel one day after Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 250 hostage. There has since been near-daily violence along the Lebanon-Israel border, in which 8 Israeli civilians and 11 soldiers have been killed. Israel has targeted 4,500 Hizbullah sites in the past five months. But Hizbullah's well-stocked and deeply entrenched militants continue to launch rockets, and Israel said the militants have attempted to or actually crossed the border half a dozen times. Partush said the reality of living next to Lebanon has irrevocably changed. "They need to create a security belt, we need to have an Israeli army presence always, and they need to strengthen the emergency squads so not even a mouse can pass through the border." "I don't want my daughters to grow up like I did," said Michal Nidam, a high school counselor from Kiryat Shmona, which has suffered rocket fire from Lebanon for decades. "I have had anxiety since I was little. I used to sleep with my fingers in my ears, under the bed, and many times I slept with shoes and clothes on." Nidam and her children now live in a hotel in Tiberias.