Nature pays price for war in Israel's north

Across northern Israel's lush, green nature reserves, the ecological toll of the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants is laid bare: wild boar hit by shrapnel, trees reduced to ashes and swathes of charred vegetation.

In the Hula Valley, home to a unique migration sanctuary for birds, a flock of common cranes and their cacophony of calls fill the air - but smoke billows in the distance and their sounds soon compete with the whir of Israeli military helicopters overhead.

The impact is particularly clear at the Agamon Hula Valley Nature Reserve, where all that remains in some areas after more than a year of Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon are burned plants and cinder-strewn soil.

Inbar Rubin, field director at the reserve, worries about the war's effects on birds.

"The noises of war, the sounds of interceptions, of (rockets) falling and the loud booms - these are the sounds that birds hear," Rubin said. "It's a huge source of stress."

The war has driven visitors away from the reserve, which sits approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Lebanon.

"People say to me, 'Wow, the birds must be happier because there are no people,' but the damage the war does to nature is a million times more than the damage visitors do."

The reserve is an internationally known resting spot for hundreds of millions of birds migrating from Europe and Asia to Africa and back during the spring and autumn seasons.

It is home to pelicans, ducks, eagles and other birds of prey, as well as flamingos, which Rubin said is "a fairly new phenomenon".

But she noted that fewer birds were stopping at the sanctuary than in previous seasons, adding there was "much less nesting than in normal years" and reduced mating.

- Paradise lost? -

Hezbollah began launching low-intensity attacks on Israel last year, in solidarity with its ally Hamas following the Palestinian militant group's October 7, 2023 attack.

After nearly a year of trading cross-border fire with Hezbollah, Israel widened the focus of its operations from Gaza to Lebanon, launching a massive aerial campaign and sending ground forces across the border.

The bombing has devastated villages in Lebanon, especially areas along its southern border with Israel, where Hezbollah holds sway.

Around 50,000 cranes came to the reserve the previous winter, said longtime ornithologist Yossi Leshem, "and for them, it was really paradise".

But after the Israel-Hezbollah war started, he added, the number of birds arriving dropped by 70 percent.

"It is a real threat," said Leshem, also the founder of an international bird migration research centre. The fighting and fires have also caused food resources for the birds to dwindle.

"Even if the war will stop in a year now - and I hope it will stop as soon as possible... the impact can be felt for many more years," he told AFP.

In the long term, however, the conflict would not ultimately change the birds' pattern of migration, Leshem said. The birds passing through will be "less successful and so on, but finally, when the war stops, it (migration) goes on".

The damage is not limited to the reserve.

Israel's nature and parks authority has assessed that since the October 7 Hamas attack, around 92,400 acres (37,400 hectares) of nature reserves, national parks, forests and open areas have been burned across the country.

"The damage to nature is of course extensive and in numbers we are not used to," said Amit Dolev, an ecologist for the authority's northern district.

Israel's military has said nearly 16,000 projectiles, including exploding drones, have been fired into the country from Lebanese territory, many sparking wildfires.

Others, shot down by Israel's military, have sent shrapnel flying into open areas.

- Nature's resilience -

At the nature reserve of Tel Dan, adjacent to the Lebanese border, around 17 acres (seven hectares) out of 400 have been devastated by fires ignited by rockets.

On the banks of the burbling Dan stream, beside the silhouette of a burnt-out blackthorn tree, Ramadan Issa, who manages the reserve, said he had spent the last year putting out fires and rescuing animals injured or distressed by the fighting.

He pointed to suffering wildlife including porcupines, snakes and wild boars injured or killed by missiles or shrapnel, as well as the destruction of ancient trees.

But on the charred earth where he stood, small green blades of grass and vegetation were already sprouting.

"Nature is strong," Issa said. "It can grow back very fast and after the first (winter) rains, a lot will start to come back."

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  JJ's shocking death on Outer Banks inspired fan speculation about what led to the controversial decision — including cast feud rumors and more. During the second part of season 4, which premiered in November 2024, viewers were in for a surprise when a trip to track down treasure in Morocco led to one of the Pogues dying. John B (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss) and Cleo (Carlacia Grant) buried JJ (Rudy Pankow) after his biological father, Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane), stabbed him. The hit Netflix series, which premiered in 2020, originally followed a group of teenagers in a coastal town in North Carolina, one sharply dived by wealthy and working-class factions. Outer Banks started as a story about friendship, which made many assume that all of the main characters were safe. Creators Shannon Burke, Josh Pate and Jonas Pate, however, revealed they always planned to kill the fan-favorite character off. 'Outer Banks' Cast: See the Hit Netflix Show's Stars Then and Now "We were pretty sure early on that this was where it was going. We thought that one of the Pogues would die almost in the very beginning in season 1, and we were pretty sure it was going to be JJ," Burke told Cosmopolitan in November 2024. "We just weren't sure when we were going to play that card. We knew this would be JJ's season — this is JJ's story. And we realized pretty early on, like, 'OK, we're going to play this card now.'" The decision didn't sit well with most fans and Outer Banks received resounding backlash. Many questioned the real decision behind the narrative twist after speculating that Pankow might have been ready to move on from the show before its fifth and final season. Pankow made a rare comment about his departure, telling Netflix's TUDUM that same month, "When I first found out JJ was gonna risk it all and not make it, I understood it. And the risks got bigger and bigger, and the stakes got higher and higher. His death really does set up the future of OBX with the question, what is worth it? And when someone that close to you is gone, how do you navigate that?" Keep scrolling as Us explains why JJ's death blindsided the audience — and breaks down those rumors that behind-the-scenes drama contributed to the decision: The Key Players Madelyn Cline as Sarah Cameron, Chase Stokes as John B, Jonathan Daviss as Pope, Carlacia Grant as Cleo, Madison Bailey as Kiara, and Rudy Pankow as JJ on 'Outer Banks.' After Outer Banks premiered in 2020, Stokes, Cline, Bailey, Daviss, Pankow, Starkey, Grant and Austin North rose to fame. They remained the core group as others have come and gone — usually only leaving the show because their characters were killed off. It remained an unspoken role that the Pogues could have near-death moments but were never at any real risk. In fact, Outer Banks' biggest deaths before JJ's came during season 3 when Sarah's dad, Ward (Charles Esten) and John B's father, Big John (Charles Halford), didn't survive the journey to El Dorado. Ward terrorized Sarah and her friends for three seasons before Outer Banks ended his story, which set a precedent for how little death was used as a plot device against the most familiar faces on the show. Which TV Shows Are Renewed, Which Are Canceled in 2024-2025? Get the Status of Your Favorite Series The Gist Anthony Crane as Groff and Rudy Pankow as JJ on 'Outer Banks.' Season 4 started out predictably enough with the Pogues trying to plan for their future using the gold they found. The money, however, quickly ran out, forcing the group to return to freelance treasure hunting. JJ was the root of their money problems — but when hasn't he been responsible for rash decisions that caused more trouble? The focus remained on JJ as he found out that Luke wasn't his biological dad. Instead, the villain of the season — Groff — was JJ's real father, and he was the one behind just about every death that took place throughout season 4. JJ didn't know that, however, and it wasn't until very late in the game that Groff was outed to his son as a murderer with nothing to lose. Throughout the season, it was very clear that JJ was at the center of the story. But since each season shifted which Pogue was the driving force of the show, it didn't alarm most fans. John B, Sarah and Pope have shouldered the weight of a season without being killed off so why should JJ suffer a more sinister fate? Why It's a Big Deal JJ did face a different outcome though when he gave Groff the priceless blue crown — only to get stabbed anyway. The narrative twist came minutes before the season came to an end, which left fans less than thrilled. There was also the fact that Outer Banks put JJ through the wringer before cutting his life short. 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