The perpetual buzz of drones hovering above the village of Shtula in northern Israel was interrupted by several loud booms of artillery fire on Tuesday afternoon, followed by the piercing sound of sirens warning the few remaining residents of incoming fire.
But, while everyone rushed for cover, Ora Hatan stayed put. The 61-year-old is used to the reality of life on the Israel-Lebanon border. Frequent cross-border fire and the threat of war don’t seem to scare her – even though her neighbor’s house was hit by a rocket not long ago.
Israel evacuated some 60,000 people from this and neighboring regions shortly after the October 7 terror attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza sparked a new wave of violence by Hezbollah along the northern border.
But Hatan refused to leave.
“It’s my country, it’s my home, it’s my land,” she said.
Hatan, who lived in the same house in 2006, when Israel invaded Lebanon, said she is hoping there won’t be a major ground war.
“I think that we can protect the border by plane. Or to go (in) and come back… But not stay (in Lebanon), it’s too dangerous,” she said, adding that she believes the solution to the current crisis will eventually be found in an agreement.
“So why sacrifice people for this war?” she said.
Hatan has spent most of the last two days cooking a feast to celebrate the Jewish New Year, which started on Wednesday. As she rushed around the kitchen, the howls of jackals sounded in the background, possibly startled by the sounds of combat.
She told CNN she cooked 50 chickens, dozens of pounds of beef, vegetable sides and other delicacies. The Israeli soldiers stationed nearby were coming to pick up the food later.
Hatan said she was not worried about having soldiers around. “I’m sure that (Hezbollah) see me, that I live here, that I feed the animals and I’m staying here,” she said standing on her terrace, the Lebanese border just a mile away.
CNN’s Sarah Boxer, Michael Schwarz, Maksim Kataev and Nic Robertson contributed to this report.
