Despite missiles and an evacuation order, the spit is still turning at this northern Israel shop

• Published date: 19 April 2024
• Author: URIEL HEILMAN/JTA
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Nearby gas canisters exploded, the street instantly burst into flames, cars caught fire and smoke filled the night air

By then, the vast majority of the 25,000 residents of this city less than two miles from the Lebanon border had fled, many to hotels - part of an evacuation of more than 60,000 people from northern Israel after Hamas's October 7 attack from Gaza and Hezbollah's ensuing attacks from Lebanon.

A man at the site suffered a shrapnel wound to his chest. No one was killed.

Five months on, Kiryat Shmona is still a ghost town and Hezbollah's daily attacks on northern Israel continue unabated. But Abutbul's fast-food restaurant, Baguette Shlomi, remains open. It's one of only a couple of eateries still operating in the city.

"There's a need that has to be met," said Abutbul, 22. "There are almost no civilians here. Only soldiers have stayed, and they basically have no place to eat. We stayed for the soldiers, and to try to keep up a normal routine. Staying at hotels for evacuees doesn't suit us."

Resilience amidst conflict

Abutbul's determination to remain, keep his restaurant running and try to support soldiers on the front lines reflects how Israelis in the conflict zone are endeavoring to stay resilient amid what feels like a long war of attrition far from the front lines of Gaza, where most of the world's attention was focused until this week's attack on Israel by Iran.

An estimated 850 to 1,500 residents are still in Kiryat Shmona. Every so often, someone in the city is killed by enemy fire.

"You don't know what you're waking up to, and you don't know what's the future," said Abutbul's mother, Jessica. "I don't know if the government knows, if the state knows or if the army knows. It leaves us with a very unpleasant feeling."

What's clear to most Israelis is that the current situation is untenable and has no clear solution. Hezbollah is larger and better equipped than Hamas, and an all-out war with the Lebanese terrorist group likely would be far more destructive to Israel than the war in Gaza. Yet short of war, many Israelis believe it's not possible to remove the threat Hezbollah poses - including its ability to launch an October 7-style attack.

Hezbollah mounts attacks in myriad forms. Anti-tank missiles are the most dangerous, coming without the warning of an air-raid siren because they are portable and fly quickly in a direct line rather than in the longer arc of a rocket. They're too fast to be intercepted by the Iron Dome missile...