SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
A monthlong ceasefire between the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel is holding for now. Both sides have agreed to stop fighting and pull out of southern Lebanon before a January 26 deadline. Critical to that agreement is Lebanon's largest river, the Litani River. Hezbollah forces are required to withdraw to north of the river. As NPR's Emily Feng reports, the river marks not only the war's battle lines but also the country's future.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Lebanon's Litani is its largest and longest river. Millions of people depend on it. So I got in the car with Chadi Saad, an environmental researcher, and we went right to the source.
CHADI SAAD: The river is just behind those trees.
FENG: We're high up in the mountains of eastern Lebanon. We step out of the car at this rushing stream. The stream feeds the greater Litani.
SAAD: That is our story. We have a beautiful land. We have a beautiful water. We have a lot of water.
FENG: Saad grew up with the river, but now he fears it's in peril. It's shrunk dramatically from lack of rain, and pollution is now a problem.
SAAD: But everyone throw everything in the water.
FENG: He points to plastic bottles floating on the water, but a more pressing problem becomes apparent where the Litani is lined by factories, a good hourlong drive further downstream. Here, the river broadens and rushes past us, and the clear water at the source has now turned to dark green. Chemicals suspended inside the water create huge amounts of toxic foam.
There's literally so much foam in the water, it's flying in the wind.
Saad explains that where you are born in relation to the Litani River can mean life or death because some people have to fish and drink from this polluted water. And we head even further south to Qaraoun Lake, a major reservoir on the river. Here, he says, we're close to the biggest danger of all.
SAAD: From 20 days ago, we cannot come here. It was a dangerous area. The Israeli bombs, Hezbollah.
FENG: From the edge of the huge reservoir, Saad points south to where war once raged before the ceasefire. South of the river is where Israel's military concentrated its artillery strikes during the 14-month war with Iran-backed Hezbollah. And that's where we go next. The river makes a sharp turn and starts flowing west towards the Mediterranean, right around a town in southern Lebanon called Nabatieh. This area is deeply supportive of Hezbollah, and it was heavily damaged during the war.
SOBHEI TARHINI: Israel attacks and bombing here - and what you see is the damage.
FENG: Engineer Sobhei Tarhini takes over the tour now at a ruined shopping mall.
TARHINI: It's not a military station. It is a civilian station.
FENG: He says there were restaurants, banks and offices here. Now it's all just heaps of concrete and rebar, on each one planted a yellow Hezbollah flag. Engineer Tarhini mourns the mall's loss.
TARHINI: This building, I think, is the most beautiful building in Nabatieh. What makes the building beautiful? It's two. The people, your heart (laughter).
FENG: Who those people are is also marked by the Litani. The river clearly delineates identity and religious sect and war. More than three-fourths of residents here are Shia Muslims, and the Litani River is the ceasefire boundary. Between the river and Lebanon's border with Israel, Hezbollah fighters and Israel's military are supposed to clear out by the end of January. On our last stop, I visit this Lebanese village right next to where the Israeli army still is.
ALKARD EL HASSAN: (Speaking Arabic) supermarket.
FENG: A grocer who calls himself AlKard El Hassan owns a supermarket there. He shows us how he's restocked his store despite shelling that blew out some of his windows and walls.
HASSAN: (Speaking Arabic).
FENG: Hassan says, he still has to earn a living, and he's determined to show the world he's able to get over the destruction wrought on them. I ask if he's nervous if the ceasefire and the Litani border will hold, especially with the Israeli military still striking Lebanon. Lebanon's officially complained to the United Nations over these potential ceasefire violations. Israel says it's abiding by the agreement.
HASSAN: (Non-English language spoken).
FENG: Hassan says, no matter what, he feels a duty to stay on his land in Lebanon, even if it is very close to his enemy, Israel. And as we talk...
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FENG: ...An explosion shakes his doors. We later learn from Lebanese defense authorities it was an Israeli drone strike on a car nearby. Hassan barely flinches. He's used to the dangers here, living south of the Litani. It's a boundary marking religion, politics and war. That's why it means so much to so many in Lebanon. Emily Feng, NPR News, Qlaileh (ph), Lebanon.
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DETROW: You can find more reporting from our team in the Middle East and differing perspectives of what's taking place there on our website. Just visit npr.org/mideastupdates. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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