The sound of explosions and alarms have become so routine in northern Israel that some locals who remain barely flinch when they hear them.
"It's very, very loud," said David Amzel, a bakery owner at the Gesher Haziv kibbutz located just 5 kilometers from the border with Lebanon. "But to be honest with you, I see people sitting down at the bakery, having their coffee, and then there is a loud BOOM! and people don't even move."
Amzel still gets up at 2:45 a.m. every day to get the bread in the oven, but business has been anything but usual since the unprecedented attack on Israel by the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas one year ago.
Israel’s retaliatory war in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has been met by daily cross-border rocket attacks by Hezbollah, the armed group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah's attacks led the Israeli government to order the evacuation of everyone within several kilometers of the northern border. The move initially displaced 60,000 people and created a closed military zone that extends 120 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea to the occupied Golan Heights.
A view of the mountains that mark the Lebanese-Israeli border north of Gesher Haziv
While Gesher Haziv kibbutz lies just outside the evacuation zone, many residents voluntarily left the settlement that was once home to about 1,000 people.
Amzel and his family of four were among those who opted to stay, in part to keep his business afloat. But now, after his normal workday ends in the early afternoon, Amzel has additional duties -- guarding the gates of the kibbutz until 6 p.m. as a member of an emergency-response team.
On Guard
The threat of cross-border attacks by Hezbollah -- considered a terrorist group by the United States, although the EU has only blacklisted its armed wing -- continues to loom large.
And since Israel's ground invasion of southern Lebanon early this month and its ongoing air strikes across the country, Hezbollah has stepped up the intensity and range of its rocket attacks, targeting cities as far south as Haifa and displacing tens of thousands more Israelis.
Amzel described the situation in Gesher Haziv -- located along the Mediterranean Sea -- in an October 9 telephone interview in which the sounds of his two children, weapons fired by Israel's navy, and alarms warning of impending strikes were audible in the background.
He said that locals rely heavily on phone apps that signal incoming rocket attacks, and if they are in the line of fire, they run for bomb shelters -- including mobile ones placed on streets -- or safe rooms in homes.
"People don't like to walk, to be outside a lot," he said. "They go to work, they come back, they stay with their kids."
The same day, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an attack involving some 150 rockets that killed two people who were walking their dog in Kiryat Shmona, a one-hour drive northeast.
Hezbollah rocket attacks have killed dozens of people in northern Israel in the past year, according to Israeli officials.
The city of Kiryat Shmona, which lies inside the evacuation zone, was populated by more than 26,000 people a year ago, according to Maria Gershkovich, who operated a children's theater there until she and her family left for Haifa.
Gershkovich said that Kiryat Shmona was basically a "ghost town," and that only people in some professions live there today. In a video interview with Current Time this week, she said she wants to return but has no plans to do so for now.
"Our return is only possible if I, as a mother, am sure that I can calmly send my child to school," Gershkovich said, adding that it might take a long time before she is assured that it is safe to go back.
Tough Row
Amid the uncertainty of war, few things remain constant in the largely agricultural north. But life goes on.
Most workers and residents have been evacuated from Kibbutz Snir, located 15 minutes northeast of Kiryat Shmona and just 500 meters away from the border with Lebanon.
But someone needs to protect the kibbutz, care for the cattle and chickens, and tend to the fields and avocado groves.
Army reservist Lior Shelef does whatever is required to protect Kibbutz Snir, located just 500 meters from the Lebanese border in northern Israel.
Army reservist Lior Shelef is part of the security team that defends the kibbutz. But the 48-year-old explained that, while the highly trained team patrols and stays at the ready for a possible Hezbollah attack, his job entails much more.
"If there are rocket attacks, we need to make sure there's no damage to any of the houses. If there are brush fires we need to go and fight the fires," Shelef told RFE/RL by phone. "We need to make sure that everything will still be here."
Shelef only occasionally gets to see his wife and three children aged 5 to 10, who were evacuated and have spent much of the last year in a hotel. Shelef says the situation is difficult for people who remain near the border, especially for children who can only attend school online and who suffer from post-traumatic stress.
"At every small noise, they become fearful and want to go and stay in the safe room. The reality here for the kids is very, very hard," Shelef said.
But at the end of the day, he added, the kids know that "this is where their home is. This is where we chose to live our life."
They have no doubt that they will be reunited with their games and their dog at home, Shelef said, "and they are just hoping that it happens as soon as possible."