On the brink: Israel’s Metula ups security in the face of Hezbollah threat

Since the 2006 war between Israel and the armed Shi’ite group Hezbollah, the Israel-Lebanon border has seen periods of uneasy calm, intermittently disrupted by sporadic cross-border skirmishes and fire exchanges. Now, it appears that Hezbollah may be preparing for another prolonged military operation against its southern neighbor.

In response, the Israeli border town of Metula is bolstering its security to safeguard its citizens from a potential surge of violence from the north.

Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based militia acting largely as a proxy for Iran in the region, recently hosted members of the country’s foreign press corps to showcase its military readiness. The group is engaging in maneuvers and training exercises that it claims are in preparation for renewed attacks on Israel.

In an area that Israelis refer to as the “finger of the Galilee,” where Israeli territory is bordered on two sides by Lebanon and one side by the Golan Heights and Syria, an air of apprehension, strikingly at odds with the pastoral landscape, prevails.

Nestled within this finger is Metula, Israel’s northernmost town, whose city limits extend right up to the border.

The home of Malki Maoz was recently upgraded with the addition of a new safe room, in Metula, Israel. (credit: DARIO SANCHEZ/THE MEDIA LINE)

In Metula, the high concentration of military vehicles and advanced equipment vigilantly monitoring the border 24/7 is impossible to overlook.

Special safe rooms being added to apartment buildings

Since 1995, Israeli law has mandated that all newly constructed housing includes specially designed safe rooms to shelter families from shelling. Contractors cannot receive approval for building plans, and new houses cannot be connected to utilities such as water, electricity, and sewage without these shelters.

Prior to 1995, apartment buildings were built with communal shelters. These are no longer deemed adequate, and public funds have been allocated to retrofit these structures, ensuring that every unit is equipped with its own safe room.

Accessible from within the house, these safe rooms serve as an additional space for the family, but one furnished with all the characteristics of an air-raid shelter.

These safe rooms are fortified with reinforced concrete walls at least 40 centimeters thick, providing effective protection during bombings. One-way valves permit air to flow from the inside out, whereas air from outside must pass through a filtration device. If a sensor detects lethal gas, the airflow from outside is entirely blocked.

Many who witnessed Hezbollah’s military exercise near the Israel-Lebanon border say they are convinced that the next round of violence between the militia and Israel is inevitable, and only a matter of time.

The pivotal uncertainty remains: Will Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, and his associates confront Israel alone, as they have in the past, or will Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or other forces allied with Tehran stand by their side?