Just two days following the announcement of yet another ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, a group labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Yulia Bar-Dan found herself outside her temporary residence in Kibbutz Manara, located in northern Israel. Suddenly, the recognizable sound of an interceptor missile resonated through the air.
“We’ll probably hear another siren soon,” she mentioned to the News Agency.
Moments later, her phone buzzed with an alert, advising those in northern Israel to seek shelter.
For Bar-Dan, this scene is a stark reminder of the ongoing tensions on Israel’s northern frontier, nearly two years since Hezbollah engaged in conflict against Israel on October 8, 2023.
Following Hezbollah’s recent involvement in the conflict, aligning with Iran, the United States intensified diplomatic efforts to transform the ceasefire into a more comprehensive peace agreement for Lebanon.
Israeli and Lebanese representatives have engaged in multiple negotiation rounds in Washington. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has frequently announced ceasefire agreements intended to bring stability to the border. Yet, for residents of places like Manara, Israel, the threat of rockets, drones, and a lingering sense of uncertainty persists.
An Israeli soldier stands near military vehicles on the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah near the Israel-Lebanon border on Nov. 28. (Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)
“A ceasefire is supposed to be on both sides,” she said. “Not that Hezbollah keeps shooting at us and we just keep absorbing it.”
When News Agency first spoke to Bar-Dan in December 2024 during the war,she and her husband had fled Manara, Israel, with their three children and were living out of a single hotel room, unsure whether they would ever return home.
Today, roughly 200 of the kibbutz’s 280 residents have returned, Bar-Dan said.But many, including Bar-Dan’s family, still cannot live in their original homes because of war damage.
Yulia Bar-Dan and her husband are pictured during quieter times at Kibbutz Manara, Israel. (Yulia Bar-Dan)
Despite repeated ceasefire announcements, residents say normal life remains elusive.
“There hasn’t really been a routine or a quiet day since February,” she said.
Schools officially reopened in early June, but Bar-Dan decided not to send her children.
“They take the bus to school,” she said. “What if there’s a siren on the way? I can’t take that chance.”
Hezbollah terrorists holding rifles are shown in this image. (Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Her frustration is not directed at Hezbollah alone.
Like many residents interviewed by News Agency, Bar-Dan says there is a growing disconnect between the reality experienced on the border and the reality described by politicians.
“It doesn’t really matter where the decisions are being made,” she said. “The decisions just need to match reality. Right now there is a decision, but the reality is completely different.”
A year and a half after most of Manara’s residents were evacuated amid fears of a Hezbollah invasion, community leader Yochai Wolfin says residents have developed their own name for the current situation.
“We call it ‘the ceasefire war,’” he said.
The phrase has become common in the community.
First came a year and a half of evacuation. Then came the return home. Then came what Wolfin describes as three months of “fire within a ceasefire.”
The uncertainty has become part of daily life.
Children study inside shelters. Parts of the kibbutz still lack protected rooms. Construction projects remain unfinished because contractors are reluctant to work so close to the border.
He said many residents increasingly feel that the decisions determining their future are being made far from the communities that bear the consequences.
A Lebanese man holds a Hezbollah flag near the border with Israel in the southern Lebanese village of Hula on Dec. 20, 2020. (Jalaa Marey/AFP)
“Who knows what tomorrow will bring?” Wolfin said. “We know who is calling the shots. We saw it a few days ago when Trump announced another ceasefire. But for us, the reality on the ground hasn’t changed.”
The comments come as Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem warned Thursday that northern Israel would remain unsafe as long as Israeli strikes continue in Lebanon, according to Reuters.
In a written statement broadcast on June 4, 2026, Qassem condemned the Washington-mediated framework as “absurd, humiliating, and insulting,” calling it a roadmap for surrender.
For residents of Israel’s northern border communities, the statements reinforced what many say they have been experiencing for months: a ceasefire that exists on paper but not in daily life.
Naor Shamia, who heads Manara’s emergency response team, says residents increasingly worry that temporary emergency measures are becoming permanent.
“The fear isn’t today,” he said. “The fear is that this becomes years. We are in a deadlock.”
Across the border region, similar concerns are heard.
Fire burns at Kibbutz Manara following another attack. (Kibbutz Manara)
In the community of Adamit, resident Yael Cohen-Arazi described the contrast between the beauty surrounding her and the reality of living under constant threat.
“Every morning I wake up and think I’m living in paradise,” she said in footage provided to News Agency by the Israeli news agency TPS-IL. “Then there are the explosions that shake my soul.”
Her children, she said, have spent so much of their lives under fire that they no longer know what normal looks like.
“I tell them there are children who don’t live like this,” she said.
Back in Manara, Israel, another alert interrupted the afternoon.
Bar-Dan says she is not angry anymore. Mostly, she is tired and sad.
“I feel bad for the soldiers,” she said. “Every day there is another casualty, and there is still no solution.”
Yet she insists she is staying.
Members of the Kibbutz Manara rapid response unit respond to Hezbollah rocket attacks on Kibbutz Manara. (Kibbutz Manara)
“This is our home,” she said. “Someone has to live on the borders of this country.”
Then another explosion sounded in the distance.
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