Above photo: Smoke billows during Israeli shelling on the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila near the border with Israel on January 31, 2024. AFP.
The principles of the people of southern Lebanon remain unchanged since the 90s when it comes to the Resistance, as they stand in the face of Israeli terrorism and declare their unwavering support for the Resistance.
Numerous villages in southern Lebanon mourned in early February more than a dozen civilian martyrs who were killed by the Israeli occupation. There was also a large number of casualties, including 14 people who were injured in two Israeli airstrikes that targeted the Ghazieh area (south of Sidon).
Three days earlier, the towns of Nabatiyeh and al-Sawaneh buried 10 martyrs in a magnificent procession. The victims were Hussein Berjawi, Fatima Berjawi, Amal Awdeh, Zainab Berjawi, Amani Berjawi, Ghadir Tarhini, child Mahmoud Amer, children Hussein and Amir Mohsen, and their mother Raw’a al-Mohammad.
A series of attacks in which the people of southern Lebanon bitterly recalled the martyrs of Qana who ascended to martyrdom in April of 1996: the same lined-up coffins, the same land, the same spilled blood, the same killer, and the same collaborators. Although a long time has passed since 1996, the principles of the people of southern Lebanon remain unchanged in support of retaliation and the Resistance. They stand steadfast in the face of Israeli terrorism prepared to sacrifice all they have, all their loved ones and their possessions, for the sake of the Resistance.
The choice of resistance
Fatima Ismail, a resident of the southern town of Adshit, told Al Mayadeen, without a worry on her face: “Despite all the dangers around us, we are sure that the Resistance will not take our bloodshed lightly, and we trust in its intention to respond to the killing of civilians as (Hezbollah Secretary-General) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pledged during his [mid-February] speech.”
Ali Saloum, a resident of Nabatiyeh, made certain of one thing: The steadfastness of the people of southern Lebanon. “Although the Israeli occupation is trying to make it seem like the entire south is no longer safe and that the war is no longer limited to the border areas, and despite the horror of the massacres that took place a few days ago, we will remain steadfast in our homes and our land. We will not leave Nabatiyeh, and we are still receiving our displaced brothers and sisters,” he said.
Nabatiyeh, along with other villages that are further away from the occupied Palestinian-Lebanese border area, are providing shelter to those displaced from the southernmost areas as they escape the brutality of the Israeli occupation and its indiscriminate bombardment of border towns.
Zainab Al-Houri, from the southern town of al-Sawaneh, stressed that her town being bombed had severe consequences in terms of human and material losses. “But what is striking is that the townspeople went back to their regular lives the very next day. You can see it when you walk through the neighborhoods of the town, as they are teeming with people. The bombing left our determination unshaken and it did not dissuade us from our support for the Resistance. Everyone is saying they will stay here without any fear managing to creep its way into their hearts.”
“We only spent one month in our house after it took us more than seven years to build. It was a three-story house surrounded by tall trees and had a breathtaking view. The only thing left of it is dust now. It was the first house to be severely damaged by the Israeli bombing of Barshit,” Mariam Shehab told Al Mayadeen.
Mariam said the people of southern Lebanon are aware of the desire of the Israeli killing machine to pressure the people of the south and dissuade them from supporting the Resistance, “but we are ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of the Resistance.”
No sacrifice is enough to dissuade them from affirming at any occurrence that they are ready to sacrifice even more for the sake of the Resistance, and it has yet to become just a word of mouth. Whenever the phrase “everything is to be sacrificed for the sake of the Resistance” is said, one is sent back in time to 2006, to the voice of a woman wearing a white veil with her hands raised up to the sky with rubble behind her saying that it was all for the sake of the Resistance in the aftermath of the July 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon.