STORY: :: Beirut, Lebanon
In a parking lot in Beirut, Hassan Yahya has taped this cardboard sign to a traffic pole - next to the tarp tent where he lives.
It reads - "Kfar Kila welcomes you."
Once a centuries-old Lebanese village near the Mediterranean coast, and his home, it now sits in ruins.
:: Hassan Yahya, Displaced resident of Kfar Kila
"The life of the village... we lived a beautiful life in it, the gatherings we used to do when we were young - playing games, at coffee shops and cafes, playing cards, joking and laughing."
:: Kfar Kila, Lebanon, February 2025
Kfar Kila is just one of about a dozen villages along the country's southern border that have been progressively flattened by Israeli bombardment over the past two and a half years.
Hassan has watched his ancestral lands transformed into a "buffer zone" that Israel is clearing to secure its border.
To understand what has been lost, Reuters spoke to five former residents of Kfar Kila, now scattered across Lebanon -
and used satellite images, social media posts, photos and videos to reconstruct life in one of the country's vanished villages.
:: Hassan Yahya, Displaced resident of Kfar Kila
"Relatives and friends used to come from abroad. We'd also gather with them by the river or the sea. They used to come mostly in the summer. We were living a beautiful life, we were truly living a beautiful and meaningful life. We all loved each other."
:: Kfar Kila, Lebanon, December 2018
The village occupies a profound psychological and cultural space in Lebanon.
In Kfar Kila, farming created a seasonal rhythm.
:: The Resilient Kfar Kila, Given as May 2014
And villagers prized their olive oil, sold nationwide.
:: Hassan Yahya, Displaced resident of Kfar Kila
"We used to go on donkeys, ride them and go down to work in the fields, with vegetables, tomatoes, apples - we used to work with everything in the field. Our life was very nice, these were our childhood days. But now, olives are the main thing we deal with. The season of the olives harvest was very nice."
Kfar Kila's history stretches back more than a thousand years...
:: September 2018
With weddings and festivals forging communal ties - like the day of Ashoura, marking the death of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson.
:: Kheder Hammoud, Displaced resident of Kfar Kila
"We observe its rituals every year, gathering together, as a family, who loves the prophet's family. But we also had many beautiful childhood memories - our land, our livelihoods, our family homes, the old historical houses. These are irreplaceable. We can't replace the ones that were destroyed."
:: The Resilient Kfar Kila, Given as May 2014
For twenty years before October 7th 2023, Kfar Kila mostly prospered.
:: Samar Maalouf
Schools and clinics opened. Roads expanded horizons. Expats sent money home from abroad.
:: Israel-Lebanon border area, October 2023
But within days of the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, Hezbollah launched a "war of support," firing missiles across the border.
:: Alma al-Shaab, Lebanon, October 2023
Israel responded with a ferocious air and ground campaign, concentrated heavily in the south -
saying Kfar Kila and other leveled villages were havens for Hezbollah where they found dozens of underground structures and hundreds of weapons.
Before the conflict, the armed group made no secret of its plans to invade northern Israel.
:: 2026 Planet Labs PBC
As you can see in this satellite imagery - these villages have been effectively erased as Israeli forces moved in with controlled detonations and bulldozers.
:: Pléiades Neo Airbus DS 2026
A ceasefire in November 2024 prompted some residents to return - nearly 85% of Kfar Kila had been destroyed.
:: Kheder Hammoud, Displaced resident of Kfar Kila
"The young man's house was destroyed, his father's house was destroyed, my house was destroyed. There is no one, all the houses were destroyed. There is no way. There is no one whose house was not destroyed."
:: Beirut, Lebanon, March 2026
The latest round of fighting, which broke out in March when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Iran -
has forced 1.2 million Lebanese people from their homes - about a fifth of the population.
:: Baabda, Lebanon, March 2026
While Hassan went north to the capital city, his neighbor and childhood friend, Kheder Hammoud, settled near the Syrian border.
Recently, he drove from the northern mountains to the Beirut parking lot to visit Yahya - Kheder leaning on his late mother's walking stick, one of the few items he salvaged from his home.
Israel says the buffer zone is temporary. But many Lebanese fear it will become permanent.
:: Kheder Hammoud, Displaced resident of Kfar Kila
"Everything old in our village has a meaning, a symbol. Finding the symbol of one's family in the end is difficult... where one lived, where one's childhood was... it's difficult seeing it destroyed. It is impossible to bring these back."
By January 2024, Kfar Kila was nearly empty.
