The tires of a lone car running on asphalt cut by tank treads made the only sound in the area where the last Lebanon war erupted.
At a bend the guerrillas breached the electronic border fence, kidnapped two soldiers, and the Israelis knocked down more sections in a futile race to cut the guerrillas' escape route.
Rocks now block the dark brown dirt track in the valley that runs from the point where the July 12 kidnapping occurred into Lebanon. Blackened concrete slabs lie nearby and a white flag flutters from the roof of a building across the border.
In the closest Israeli village, Shetula, Ilana Eliyahu recalled that morning when a huge bomb exploded under a tank that rushed into Lebanon. "The whole house shook. The windows shattered and I heard shots," she said.
Hezbollah covered the abduction with an attack on military positions along the front. It fired at cameras that the army posted there and reportedly knocked them out. The tank that rushed across was torn apart and parts fell in Shetula.
Residents hurried into shelters while men belonging to immediate response units rushed to positions surrounding Shetula to protect their village.
An Apache helicopter appeared overhead firing into Lebanon and the spent cartridges fell on Peretz Eliyahu's lawn. "It can kill someone," Eliyahu said. He phoned Shetula's secretary and 10 minutes later the helicopter moved a bit, he noted.
"We have returned to almost-normal life," he said.
Hezbollah rockets caused material damage in Shetula and anti-tank rocket injured a resident whose leg is still in a cast, but the ceasefire has been holding.
Residents said that they could not tell whether the people they saw across the border belong to Hezbollah. The Lebanese guerrillas used to wear uniforms and move in jeeps but not any longer. "When you see a bearded man in civvies you don't know if he is a terrorist or just a civilian," Eliyahu said.
At Wednesday's cabinet meeting, military chief of general staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, recalled two incidents. In one, Hezbollah supporters in yellow T-shirts and waving their movement's flags stoned Israeli Humvees. United Nations peacekeepers dispersed them. Following another incident Israel warned UNIFIL and the Lebanese army that next time demonstrators will hurl stones or damage the border fence, the army will react with crowd dispersal equipment, then fire in the air and if that does not help shoot at demonstrators' legs. It will not shoot to kill unless someone on the other side is armed and endangers human lives, Halutz said.
Hezbollah men and supporters live in the south and cannot be expelled but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert noted that so far none were seen armed.
Israel has withdrawn from 95 percent of the area that it occupied during the war. Arguments over rules of engagement and Israeli demands are delaying completion of that pullback. Israel insists that only UNIFIL and the Lebanese army - not Hezbollah - may use intelligence-gathering equipment. It provided UNIFIL and the Lebanese army with "indications" of "terror infrastructures" and wants that handled. Once an agreement is reached, the remaining Israeli troops could leave Lebanon within a day or two, Halutz added.
Shetula's residents are "repressing" security concerns, said the village's secretary, David Giladi.
Residents seem to focus on economic problems, on ways to attract new residents and tourists to their tree-covered area that is one of Israel's most beautiful spots. Government regulations allow each of the 50 families' to produce 500,000 eggs a year, residents grow peaches, apples, and have 25 Bed and Breakfast rooms but Giladi said that he wants more government aid and that it should come not only after a war.
Jews whose families emigrated from Kurdistan in northern Iraq established Shetula in 1969. "We knew the border was here ... We live with it," Giladi said.
In the 1970s Fatah guerrillas attacked. Then came Hezbollah and Peretz Eliyahu maintained that the rocket attacks were not as bad as cross border raids. "In case of mortar bombing you enter your shelter and are secure. But when terrorists penetrate ... It's much more dangerous, especially at night," he said.
Residents were critical of the army. In recent years it stopped patrolling right along the border fence and when there were alerts of imminent kidnappings, soldiers were pulled out of front line positions, Giladi said. "We had an opportunity to ... deal them a decisive blow and [we did not] ... We were not properly prepared," he said, referring to the most recent war.
"Now the entire Arab world says: 'Is this what Israel, with all its might, was able to do? With its air force, and tanks ... in 30 days of fighting?'" Giladi said that he does not feel vulnerable, "But I know what is the scenario."
As long as the Lebanese government is weak, indecisive, militant groups will develop in the south. Hezbollah will analyze its mistakes, recoup, and resume fighting, Giladi predicted. "They're not going to do it now. They'll do it when they will feel ready and strong enough," said Eliyahu. It will take two years, he said.
Undeterred by the closeness of the border the interviewees seemed determined to stay in Shetula. "I am a religious person. I am not afraid. I believe that everything comes from above," said Eliyahu whose knitted skullcap indicates his religious-Zionist beliefs.
Analysis: Israel's flashpoint border village reality
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