Kiryat Shmona residents said the northern Israeli town has fallen back into a routine of air raid sirens and missile interceptors after a return from evacuation, describing a strain that has stretched from months of sheltering into a new normal for daily life.
Gila Pahima, who returned to Kiryat Shmona in spring after living through an earlier evacuation that followed Hezbollah rocket fire, said she now feels trapped in continuous danger. “I feel like we’re in constant war,” she said. “You feel like you’re on a battlefield all day.”
Residents said their expectations after the last round of fighting were shaped by the belief that Hezbollah had been heavily damaged during Israel’s previous war and the subsequent ceasefire in November 2024. They said Hezbollah’s top leader was dead, hundreds of Hezbollah members were maimed by booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies, and much of southern Lebanon was left in ruins by the earlier fighting—creating a sense, at least in Israel, that Hezbollah had been substantially weakened.
But residents said Hezbollah’s rocket fire resumed within days of Israel and the United States attacking Iran, which has also launched waves of missiles at Israel. While many Israelis support the war against Iran and hope it can produce meaningful change in the Middle East, the residents described fatigue—especially in the north—as air alerts repeatedly force people back into shelters. Several said they wonder whether airstrikes or ground incursions can bring calm for more than brief stretches.
Avraham Golan, 79, said the contrast between government claims and lived experience has fueled anger. “You brought us here. You said, ‘Hezbollah is weakened,’” said Golan, addressing the Israeli government. “Where is it weakened? They are worse than what they used to be.”
Residents said nights have become their hardest test. Golan said explosions are so close they feel as if they are happening inside homes, and he said no one in his area has slept more than two hours at a time. During the day, residents said they try to shop for provisions between sirens, but the urgency returns as soon as alerts resume.
Some residents said they have adapted by turning shelters into long-term living spaces. Bruria Danino, 61, said she moved into a shelter with her extended family after breaking her nose while running to reach it early in the war. She said her family has spent most of the past two weeks living with three other families in a neighborhood shelter where steel bunk beds fold down from the walls.
Danino described her household’s disruption during missile alerts, including her grandson’s online classes pausing and switching instead to cartoons on a tablet while he slept on an inflatable mattress. “They promised us a few years of quiet, but after 10 months, it’s the same situation,” Danino said. Her daughter, Hodaya, described the experience in terms of fear and trauma, saying it feels like a “horror movie,” and adding that “People say Israel’s homefront is so strong, but we’re not strong, we all have post-trauma.”
Residents said Israel launched waves of airstrikes on southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, and that Israeli ground troops pushed deeper into southern Lebanon as Israel warned people to evacuate from a wide area. They said the strikes have killed hundreds of Lebanese, and that over a million have fled their homes, citing Defense Minister Israel Katz as saying none will return until northern Israel is safe and calm. They also said Iranian missiles have killed at least 12 people in Israel, and that two soldiers have been killed in combat in southern Lebanon.
For Pahima, who was born in Kiryat Shmona and raised four sons there, the renewed fire has raised questions about whether the town can ever regain what it was before the latest evacuation. She said she fears the city may never return to how it was, noting that many evacuated residents—especially those with children—never returned. The city declined to release information on how many evacuees came back, but Pahima and others estimated that at least half have stayed away, leaving Kiryat Shmona with fewer opportunities for young people.
Pahima said she understands why people hesitate to return and added that even temporary calm can feel temporary. “Maybe it will calm down for a few years,” she said. “But then war will come back.”