LBCI's team visits Deir Mimas, documenting damage, strategic significance

Report by Lara El Hachem, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

Approximately one kilometer away, residents of Kfarkela walked toward the Lebanese army's last position in Deir Mimas, which leads to their village. 

There, they stopped, with an earthen barrier and snipers positioned between them and Israeli forces, preventing their passage into Kfarkela.

However, the residents aimed to make the move peacefully, not crossing the Lebanese army's line. As resident Abou Shadi says, "We have had enough martyrs."

At the Deir Mimas intersection, the scene had changed from the previous week. 

Residents of Kfarkela raised Lebanese flags and images of the president on tents they had set up a few days earlier, asserting that their movement was not political but a symbolic individual action and that they were under the protection of the state.

LBCI's team entered the center of Deir Mimas, which was occupied by Israeli forces during the war, specifically the Saint Mama Monastery, which the Israeli occupation had used because it is located on the banks of the Litani River, a strategic area for Hezbollah.

Cars not belonging to the residents of Deir Mimas remained parked near the monastery, while nearby homes showed visible damage from relentless Israeli shelling.

The olive trees cut down stand as evidence of one of the most intense raids witnessed by the people of Deir Mimas in an open area. 

On Sunday, Israeli forces retreated but remained stationed on the village's edges and at the Aaziyyeh hill, which connects it to Kfarkela. 

Those who stayed during the war were trapped in their homes, but today, many have returned, taking advantage of the ceasefire to pray in the village's churches, as between Deir Mimas and Kfarkela, there is neighborly solidarity, a shared fate, and a collective will for freedom.