In northern Israel, farmers struggle on in fear of Hezbollah attack
Dafna persevering under the threat of a new front opening in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.
Here, a few hundred metres (yards) from south Lebanon, where Israeli foe Hezbollah holds sway, the spectre of another October 7 haunts civilians.
Almost all of the 1,050 residents of this agricultural community were evacuated to hotels close to the nearby Sea of Galilee.
Only around 15 men stayed behind, charged with the security of the kibbutz.
Dafna is reached down a narrow and poorly maintained highway that Israelis call «the old northern road».
Now, it is deserted, the cause clearly visible across the border — positions of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied to Iran which has said it stands ready to step up its operations against Israel if circumstances warrant it.
Twice a day, one less than before the war, the farmers come to milk their cows.
«If we didn't, they'd die,» said Arik Yaakobi, 45, one of the few who stayed.
«People are scared to return because of the possibility that Hezbollah might repeat what Hamas did,» he said.
On October 7, Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border and attacked farms, villages and a desert music festival in southern Israel, killing an estimated 1,400 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.
In response, the Israeli army launched an unrelenting bombardment of Gaza which killed more than 8,500 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
In Dafna, only soldiers were visible on the streets.
The signs of a hurried departure by its civilian residents were everywhere — children's toys strewn on lawns, bicycles discarded against playhouses, laundry still hanging out to dry.
— 'I don't sleep anymore —
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