political and social mix<\/a> of sects.<\/p>\nBut their frustration stopped far short of any abandonment of Hezbollah. With Israel declaring plans to occupy the south and Lebanese government forces making no move to counter Israeli troops, people saw Hezbollah fighters as their only hope of keeping their homes and land.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is this life?\u201d Zeinab Baz, 53, cried as she stumbled across a jumble of wires and twisted sheet metal, all that remained of her home. \u201cEverything beautiful is gone.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Homecoming <\/p>\n
The homecoming after weeks of war had become an unwelcome ritual for those returning south. Most had been displaced before, when hostilities with Israel last escalated in 2024, then returned as that conflict ended and rebuilt their damaged homes. <\/p>\n
When Hezbollah fired on Israel in March, many among its support base questioned whether the latest outbreak of war was worth the cost. And in the south, those costs came into plain view.<\/p>\n
Scattered across the orange orchards and olive groves were villages that had been completely pulverized. Entire floors of buildings, their walls blown out, had keeled over onto their sides next to waist-deep mounds of cinder blocks and dangling wires. Outside one strip of shuttered stores, two abandoned brown horses stood awkwardly in the parking lot. <\/p>\n
At a cemetery in the coastal city of Tyre, one woman, Suheila, 54, searched for the temporary grave of her son, Hussein, a Hezbollah fighter who was killed in the war. When she found it \u2014 marked by a photo of him propped up against a cinder block \u2014 she collapsed on her knees and began slapping the hardened earth with both hands. For her, there was no illusion that the cease-fire was a victory for Lebanese Shiites, secured by Hezbollah\u2019s patron, Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is this victory?\u201d cried Suheila, who provided only her first name, citing security reasons. \u201cWhat is this victory, Hussein?\u201d <\/p>\n
A few miles away in Qasmiyeh, Farida Ali Awila glowered as she sat on the curb of a gas station and waited to check on her home in the Shiite village of Touline.<\/p>\n
Beside her, a Hezbollah member handed out fliers to cars passing by showing Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader of Iran, that drivers could triumphantly display on their windshields. <\/p>\n
Ms. Awila watched silently for a few minutes. Then her anger boiled over.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost many men, they\u2019re dying for what? For who? Iran?\u201d she yelled. \u201cIran is doing deals behind our back and our men are dying for them?\u201d<\/p>\n
The posters were part of the group\u2019s effort to give credit for the truce to Iran. But they were also among the most explicit acknowledgments of the group\u2019s fealty to Tehran, which has wielded an even heavier hand with Hezbollah\u2019s operations since its former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by Israel in 2024.<\/p>\n
His successor, Naim Qassem, does not inspire the same fervent loyalty among Lebanese Shiites as Mr. Nasrallah once did. The other main Shiite political party, the Amal Movement, commands less popular support and influence. Many Shiites longed for a strong political leader to advocate for them amid a war that few think will be won solely on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
Under Mr. Nasrallah, \u201cit was as if we were sleeping, but we knew there was someone guarding us,\u201d said Khadija Ramez Ghozyel, 60, in Qlaileh, a village near the country\u2019s Mediterranean coastline. <\/p>\n
Now the Hezbollah fighters, she said, \u201care the only ones we have\u201d to protect Shiites in the south.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah\u2019s Heartland<\/p>\n
That sentiment was widespread across the southern hinterland, which is largely Shiite Muslim and delivers Hezbollah much of its support. Signs of the group\u2019s reach abound. Billboards of slain fighters line the roads, with the men\u2019s uniformed portraits placed in the center of the bright-yellow Hezbollah flags. After the truce went into effect, hundreds gathered each day in villages to mourn Hezbollah fighters killed in battle.<\/p>\n
Ambulances arrived in towns with the bodies of dead fighters and civilians, which had been kept in morgues or temporary cemeteries. As emergency workers opened their back doors, giving mourners a final glimpse of their loved ones, women lunged into the vehicles and threw themselves on the bodies. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were heroes, they were protecting us,\u201d said Rehab Tamara, 43, in Hallousiyeh, five miles inland, where she and hundreds of other residents gathered on Saturday for the funeral of three Hezbollah fighters. <\/p>\n
For years, Hezbollah cast itself as the protector of Lebanon\u2019s Shiite community, providing social services in peacetime and advancing the political and economic gains of one of the country\u2019s most marginalized groups. But as the stakes of the latest war ratcheted up, Shiite reliance on Hezbollah for physical protection has come to the forefront.<\/p>\n
Israeli forces have entrenched themselves in a newly occupied belt running six miles across southern Lebanon. Lebanese government forces withdrew from much of the south after the war broke out, and while the government has pursued a political resolution, it has little leverage over Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are with the government but we want the government to protect us, and not just let Israel do anything it wants,\u201d said Fatima Mowamis, 70, standing near her home in Hallousiyeh. <\/p>\n
Israel has continued to launch strikes on what it describes as Hezbollah targets, citing the terms of the truce that allow Israel to act in self-defense. Hezbollah has responded in turn, sporadically launching rockets toward Israel and at Israeli forces on Lebanese territory, while reiterating that it will not lay down its weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel safe at all,\u201d said Hanan Hamze, 46, at she stood on a hillside in Majdal Zoun. <\/p>\n
A week after the gravediggers had prepared the cemetery, hundreds in the village flocked to the hilltop to lay their loved ones to rest. Many looked in disbelief at the Israeli flag on the opposite ridgeline. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like the war will start up again,\u201d Ms. Hamze said, \u201cand when it does, it will be even worse than before.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hwaida Saad and Sarah Chaayto contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From their hilltop village in southern Lebanon, gravediggers watched black smoke curl up from the opposing ridgeline. Just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[5483,33680,100,1743,34,37,93,34426],"class_list":["post-98209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-defense-and-military-forces","tag-hassan","tag-hezbollah","tag-international-relations","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-nasrallah"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116519990870849491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}