LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The border between Israel and Lebanon is another front of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Almost 700,000 Lebanese people have been displaced, mostly fleeing Israeli strikes against Hezbollah. The militants are backed by Iran and have been attacking Israel in retaliation for Israel's war on Iran. On the Israeli side of the border, daily Hezbollah rockets are keeping people on edge and defiant. NPR's Carrie Kahn was there.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: It's a clear, windy day as 71-year-old Ahuva Lipman walks her quiet neighborhood in Kiryat Shmona. She's lived here for more than 50 years and says she has no plans to leave.
AHUVA LIPMAN: No, I don't want to leave because I feel that my roots is here, and I like them and we have a...
(SOUNDBITE OF MISSILE EXPLODING)
LIPMAN: ...We have a great connection...
KAHN: Oh, so what was that?
LIPMAN: ...It's our.
KAHN: Lipman doesn't even flinch as a huge boom rings out echoing off the green hills of this city of about 25,000, one of the largest in Israel's northern border.
You heard that, right?
LIPMAN: It's our.
KAHN: It's ours, she says.
So that's Israel firing into Lebanon.
LIPMAN: If you hear boom and then zzzz (ph) (laughter), it's means it's ours.
KAHN: OK. What's the other sound? When do I run?
LIPMAN: Zzzz boom (laughter).
KAHN: Unlike in other Israeli cities where residents have a few minutes between the air raid sirens and scrambling to a bomb shelter, up here next to Lebanon, the sirens and the missiles come together, she says.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR RAID SIRENS WAILING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Go, go, go, go. Run, run.
KAHN: And just minutes later, we are all running into a shelter.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR RAID SIRENS WAILING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Go.
LIPMAN: This is for you (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Special for you.
KAHN: Lipman and her husband sleep in the shelter on metal bunks, but she's not complaining or leaving.
LIPMAN: I need to decide what to do. Not Hezbollah and not Iran will tell me where to live.
KAHN: Where to live is only up to Israeli, she says. Her longtime neighbor, Michal Saadia, agrees.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN PLAYING)
KAHN: She's at her home around the corner filled with grandchildren, the fourth generation living here.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRANDCHILD BEING KISSED)
KAHN: One gets a big kiss as she serves us tea and small sandwiches. She made 80 for the soldiers stationed nearby. Her daughter, a reservist, just got called up. Her eldest son was killed in the Second Lebanon War more than 20 years ago.
MICHAL SAADIA: (Speaking Hebrew).
KAHN: "Our son is buried here," she says, "and we hold commemorations for him. We can't leave."
She says the government needs to give tax breaks and other incentives so Israelis come to live here. The entire city evacuated during the Gaza War. They just returned last March, but nearly a third of residents never came back, according to city officials. Matan Amsalem knows that too well. He's the only small-shop owner open in the town's mall. He sells electronics and cellphone supplies.
MATAN AMSALEM: (Speaking Hebrew).
KAHN: "This isn't working. I'm only here for an hour a day," he says.
He leaves to meet a customer in the parking lot, but comes right back. They didn't show. They called. They were too afraid to come out.
(SOUNDBITE OF MISSILE EXPLODING)
KAHN: Too much missile fire back and forth across the border. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Kiryat Shmona.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHONTAINE'S "FIN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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