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It's been nearly a week since the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The truce is increasingly fragile but appears to be holding. Civilians on both sides of the border were displaced by the war, including tens of thousands of Israelis who have been living in hotels and other temporary housing. Many are anxious to go back home. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf brings us this report from northern Israel.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Fifty-one-year-old Tali Tayeb has been living in a small hotel room with her husband for more than a year.
TALI TAYEB: It's very crowded because we have everything there.
LONSDORF: Their 16-year-old son is in a room down the hall. Tayeb and her family are from Shlomi, one of the northernmost towns in Israel. Most of Shlomi evacuated at the start of the war, and many came to this hotel in Haifa. Today, there are a few dozen still here. Tayeb says they formed a kind of makeshift community.
TAYEB: Used to be, when there are more people, parties and holidays. Now it's a little bit less, but it's OK. It's OK.
LONSDORF: But she says now with the ceasefire in effect, she wants to go back home, even though she doesn't think the threat from Hezbollah is over.
TAYEB: No. It can't be safe, but we are willing to take the chance.
LONSDORF: One of Israel's main objectives in its invasion into Lebanon was to push Hezbollah back from the border to allow residents to return home. But many question if this shaky ceasefire will hold. And for now, Israel has asked residents to wait.
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LONSDORF: Here in Shlomi, where Tayeb and the other evacuees at the hotel in Haifa are from, it's less than a mile to the Lebanese border. From a small park in the center of town, you can see the border wall zig-zagging up a hill. Seventy-year-old Zeev Almog points up to it.
ZEEV ALMOG: Up here in the hill.
LONSDORF: He says there used to be a Hezbollah flag flying there on the Lebanese side.
ALMOG: Now, oh no, because Israel takes them.
LONSDORF: Israeli troops removed it after Israel launched its ground invasion into Lebanon in October. Almog also evacuated from Shlomi. He and his wife have been renting a small house further south. But now...
ALMOG: And now I come back home, I hope.
LONSDORF: Today Almog is just here to start cleaning up his home after more than a year of neglect. He says he hopes others will do the same, but he knows some won't.
ALMOG: I heard of two of my neighbors, and they don't want to come back. They want to sell the house.
LONSDORF: This is what many mayors of these border towns worried about when the ceasefire deal was signed last week. Most opposed it, including the mayor of Shlomi, Gabby Neeman.
GABBY NEEMAN: (Speaking Hebrew).
LONSDORF: He says he and other municipality leaders wanted the Israeli military to control at least two miles into Lebanon. Instead, the military has agreed to fully withdraw.
NEEMAN: (Speaking Hebrew).
LONSDORF: But he says there are several new security measures the Israeli government has promised Shlomi, including extra fencing, hundreds of surveillance cameras, highly trained soldiers to patrol the community round the clock and an Israeli military outpost north of the town, right against the Lebanese border.
NEEMAN: (Speaking Hebrew).
LONSDORF: He says that despite the rocket fire, their biggest concern is that Hezbollah will launch an attack similar to what Hamas did in Israel's southern communities last year.
NEEMAN: (Speaking Hebrew).
LONSDORF: But he says he's optimistic that people will come back.
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LONSDORF: Just next door to the mayor's office, a group is cleaning out an abandoned bakery, power-washing ovens and scrubbing the floors.
SARIT ELHAY: (Speaking Hebrew).
LONSDORF: Sarit Elhay is the mother of the owner, who's hoping to reopen the bakery later this month.
ELHAY: (Speaking Hebrew).
LONSDORF: She says being torn apart has been really hard for the community.
ELHAY: (Speaking Hebrew).
LONSDORF: She wants to show people that they're investing in this place. Elhay says unfortunately, she doesn't think fighting with Hezbollah is over. But right now it feels good to focus on building after so much destruction. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Shlomi, Israel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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