Lebanese on Israel border say they don't fear escalation

Smoking shisha on a balcony overlooking where Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire only hours before, Lebanese villager Abu Rami brushes it off, saying he is now used to such confrontations.

In an attack it said had been carried out "in solidarity" with Hamas, which launched a surprise assault on Israel the day before, Hezbollah fired on Israeli positions in the contested Shebaa Farms border area.

Israel said it retaliated and warned the Iran-backed movement against getting involved in the fight on its southern flank with the Palestinian Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip.

Despite the escalation, people in the village of Kfarshouba, which overlooks Shebaa Farms, said they were not afraid of war and that they supported Hezbollah and Palestinian militants.

"We are no longer afraid; we taught our children that this a country of resistance," said Abu Rami from the village of Kfarshouba.

"Our lives at the border are unstable... we're used to this," said the man in his 40s who did not give his full name.

The tough conditions in southern Lebanon -- which endured the 1975-1990 civil war and decades of Israeli occupation followed by intermittent unrest -- has forced many people to leave Kfarshouba.

Palestinian militants had taken up base in the border areas in the 1970s, frequently exchanging fire with Israel, which had occupied the village for 22 years.

In 2006, Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war that left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers.

The two countries remain technically at war.

Speaking at a Hezbollah rally in support of Hamas' offensive, senior official Sayyed Hashem Safieddine said the group's strikes were "a message" to Israel that "it's our right and duty to target the enemy so long as it occupies our land."

- 'Lived through all the wars' -

With his back turned to the green hills that Hezbollah targeted earlier in the morning, Abu Rami said the Lebanese villagers backed the Palestinians.

"We support Palestine... and we sympathize with the resistance (Hezbollah) because we live on the border," said the municipality worker.

"We are not afraid of anything because we have no infrastructure, no electricity, no food, nothing," he said.

Lebanon has been battered by four years of gruelling economic crisis, which the World Bank said was one of the worst in recent world history.

Its currency, the pound, has lost more than 95 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar and power cuts lasting longer than 20 hours have become common, as cash-strapped state institutions fall in disrepair.

Lebanon's National News Agency said a baby and another child were injured by flying shards of glass caused by the Israeli strikes on Sunday.

Ismail Abdel Aal, a former Lebanese soldier, said people were carrying on with their lives in Kfarshouba despite the violence.

"Life in the village is normal. We are not scared," the retiree now in his 70s told AFP while taking a stroll outside.

"We have lived through all the wars here in Kfarshouba," he added.