AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Following repeated Hezbollah attacks on the border city of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, the remaining residents of this city are living in a state of anxiety and fear, even as tensions and conflicts on Israel's northern front continue to escalate.
According to a report by the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, the Israeli Channel 12, in a report by Menachem Horowitz, wrote that Kiryat Shmona, along with other border towns near Lebanon over the past year and a half, has become a “ghost town”; an empty, sorrowful city, frozen in time, much like the billboards, storefronts, and awnings that have remained unchanged since the Sukkot holiday.
The report notes that, unlike the swift and decisive evacuation, the return of Kiryat Shmona's residents has been very slow and gradual. Not everyone has returned, and those who did return did not come back immediately; rather, they returned when they felt that the war had truly achieved its objectives, even if it did not destroy Hezbollah, but at least brought a few years of calm. Even before the start of Israel's war against Iran, the city of Kiryat Shmona had still not recovered from the previous war.
According to the report, approximately 30 percent of Kiryat Shmona’s residents who were evacuated have still not returned to the city. This primarily concerns young people and those with greater financial means, individuals who experienced life in central Israel or in areas farther from the border and decided to distance themselves from living in a state of perpetual anxiety
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