Lebanese woman reflects on 1 year of ceasefire
LONDON -- A year ago, Gia Hajo walked into her home to find it destroyed: windows shattered, an entire wall in the living room collapsed, furniture and appliances broken on the floor.
It was a visible effect of 13 months of war in Lebanon, a war that she said forced her to leave the southern city, Tyre, and experience multiple evacuations, displacement and hardship.
A year after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah put an end in November 2024 to that war -- which claimed the lives of 4,000 Lebanese and 118 Israelis, according to the respective health ministries -- Hajo says the fragility of this peace looms over her life and that of Lebanese civilians.
"It doesn't just affect my life. It controls it entirely," she told ABC News in an interview.
"We always have our stuff packed in our closet for the backup stuff that we need to take with us," Hajo said. "We can't live life normally, fully. It impacts my movements. It impacts my mental health, our peace of mind, and it impacts our life in general. For example, if someone's going to have a party or a wedding, or even have a surgery, well, he needs to pray to God that on this day nothing will happen."
Although many Lebanese people have reconstructed and continue to do so, new attacks by the Israeli military are hindering the efforts to return to normal, according to humanitarian agencies.
According to the United Nations, an Israeli drone strike on Nov. 18 hit Ein el-Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, and killed at least 14 people, including 12 children. It was the deadliest single strike since the November 2024 ceasefire.
More than 300 Lebanese people have been killed in over 10,000 ceasefire violations in the first year of the ceasefire, both on the ground and on air, according to UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
Such uncertainty for the future makes it hard to deal with trauma that still needs to be processed, Hajo said, adding that she is struggling to deal with both the present anxiety and past events she endured, leaving her feeling hopeless about the future.
"I can't have a future here, in my land, in my country, near my family. Our youth, especially. We can't, because at any moment, everything will be gone and ruined," Hajo said.
Still, the day the war formally ended, Nov. 27, 2024, is a date she said she'll never forget.
"It was really the opposite of the first day of the war. We were stuck in traffic again, but it was happy traffic. I could see everyone coming back to life," Hajo said.
Videos she captured on that day and shared with ABC News show Lebanese people clearing up their homes or businesses and children returning to the beach to play.
"I witnessed my city coming back to life. Each day, it was reopening. People were coming back. ... I swear the first day, there was no bread available for all."
Hajo said she was feeling overwhelmed as she stepped inside her house again for the first time after fleeing. "It was standing, but inside, it wasn't my house. It wasn't my home," Hajo said.
Videos shared with ABC News one year ago show the moment she entered her bedroom to find it heavily damaged. "I didn't know what to do, but I thank God. I always said like, thank God we came back. Thank God we're alive."
Her family proceeded to fix their house by themselves, she said, while staying at their grandmother's place. "The most positive part is the strength and the power we have all shown," she added.
But even as life has gone back to normal in some ways, Hajo got married to her fiancé, traveled and made plans for her next chapter, the ghost of war looms over every day and every decision. Hajo describes her engagement with friends and family standing in a place that a few months before had been heavily bombed.
"Even though all odds were against, the day came and we had our engagements in South of Lebanon, in a place where it was bombing all around it in the war. So we did it, but we were scared," she said. "We're giving hope to people; that love is here as we are all together. Love is love; it can conquer everything. Especially in South of Lebanon."
