Nazareth watches with concern as violence escalates on Israel-Lebanon front

Israel's largest Arab city was already buckling under a wartime economic slowdown when cross-border clashes with Lebanon's Hezbollah intensified, grounding life to a halt.

Now Nazareth, a city heavily dependent on tourism including from Christian pilgrims, faces deepening despair as sirens wail and rockets and warplanes soar overhead.

Schools have closed, and public gatherings are banned.

As Israel's missile defense system intercepts Hezbollah rockets, residents regularly hear the rumble of explosions and see white smoke rising into the sky.

This makes for a gloomy atmosphere in the city of around 80,000, most of whom are descendants of Palestinians who stayed on their land after Israel's creation in 1948.

Many rely on Lebanese and Qatari news channels for updates on the conflict, but they have also installed Israel's emergency alert mobile app for instructions on when to seek shelter.

 'Empty' city 

 "The city is empty," said 70-year-old Fathi Abu Redaa, standing in a square where a few taxi drivers dozed, with no passengers in sight.

"Everyone is afraid, scared. Having missiles flying overhead, you know, we are not used to this here," said the retired history teacher, as classic Arab music drifted over from the terrace of an empty cafe.

Many in northern Israel's Galilee region said they have not experienced such tension since 2006, the last time Israel and Hezbollah went to war.

Back then, two children were killed by rocket fire in Nazareth.

While no fatalities have occurred this time around, residents say it feels worse, as a wider regional war seems more likely.

Israel and Hezbollah have been locked in near-daily cross-border exchanges after Hezbollah began firing on Israel last October, a decision it said it took in solidarity with Hamas, its ally in Gaza.

The Hezbollah strikes began one day after Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

In recent days, Israel has unleashed more intense waves of air strikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah sites, in the south and east and in the capital Beirut.

Hezbollah, in turn, has claimed rocket attacks on Israel, with targets including military sites near Haifa, Israel's third-largest city and the home of a major port.

On Wednesday it fired a ballistic missile towards Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial hub, which Israel intercepted.

Many old houses along Nazareth's hilly streets lack bomb shelters, so when sirens go off their inhabitants seek refuge in stairwells or windowless rooms.

  'We don't get help' 

Beyond fears for their personal safety, Nazareth residents say they are worried about how Israel might treat them should the security situation deteriorate further.

"We don't know, as a minority, Palestinians living here, what the state of Israel is planning for us," said Tareq Shihada, a 55-year-old tour guide, expressing a sentiment echoed by many in the city.

Several residents, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of official retribution, told AFP they were mindful of Israeli security forces' history of arresting Palestinians in Israel who voice solidarity with Gazans on social media.

"You start to wonder if it wouldn't suit Israeli politicians if we disappeared too, just like what's happening in Gaza," one resident said.

Others, like Elias Shama, lamented what they described as government neglect during a difficult period.

"We don't get help, and I don't think it's right," he said, sitting in his empty souvenir shop where he no longer bothers even to turn on the lights.

"You can feel the war coming closer."

His fellow shopkeeper Ziyad Daniel said he agreed the situation was "so bad" but voiced hope it soon improve.

"Israel is strong. They have a strong army," he said.

Peace activist Nabila Spanyoly said she wanted to see more protests across the country to halt the bloodshed.

She decried what she said was the indifference of Western powers towards the suffering of "our brothers and sisters" in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and now Lebanon.

She noted that many Palestinians in the region have relatives in Lebanon, stemming from the pre-1948 era when people travelled freely in the region.

"People passed from here to Syria, for example. They got married, they dated. It's not that long ago, and that's why we're so concerned because we know those who are suffering."