By Alex Rossi, international correspondent on the Israel-Lebanon border
The roads through northern Israel along the border with Lebanon are empty of cars.
It is unnervingly quiet.
Since 7 October the area has been under bombardment from Hezbollah militants and tens of thousands of people have left following the government’s evacuation rules.
Ariel Frish, the deputy head of security, in Kiryat Shmona, a frontline city, shows me the damage in a residential area.
A house is gutted from fire caused by the explosion from the strike.
“We got attacked by a great wave of missiles, one of the missiles hit this house,” he said.
“Nobody was here because we evacuated the city one week before. And if we had not evacuated there would be no survivors.”
The Israel Defence Forces and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire on a daily basis in the north for more than six months – and it feels like a full scale war may not be far away.
Walking through the communities in the north is eerie.
You can hear the sound of birdsong and the constant noise of drones and warplanes circling overhead.
A short distance from the Lebanese border and former IDF commander, Gideon Harari, who lives in one of the communities in the line of fire, says a major confrontation is looking more likely everyday.
The situation with Iran and the standoff with Hezbollah, as well as the war in Gaza, make this an incredibly dangerous time for the region.
“The shooting is daily. Rockets, drones…
