'Poking back at Hezbollah' - Israeli couple 'ties the knot' just miles from Israel's northern border with Lebanon

Hezbollah forces in Lebanon have been regularly launching rockets and drones into northern Israel since Oct. 8. Yet, despite the ongoing tensions, which have escalated in the last month, life in the Jewish state presses on.

Last week Aviram Afota and Shani Vaknin, a couple from the Western Galilee, exchanged vows in a synagogue in the northern town of Nahariya, just a few miles from the Lebanese border. Originally planned to take place in Haifa, the wedding venue was moved after Hezbollah targeted Israel’s third-largest city with rocket fire.

After 12 hours of last-minute planning, the couple’s dream of holding a wedding was realized, with around 70 family members and friends attending the celebration. In true Israeli fashion, they swiftly secured a new venue, DJ, catering and an event manager.

“This won’t be a sad wedding because those who need to be here are standing right beside us,” the groom Afota stated.

“Sure, it would have been more joyous to be in a hall with all our friends and extended family, but we’ll celebrate with them later. Today’s chuppah is our way of poking back at Hezbollah, right here in Nahariya," he added.

One of the staff, Mirit Zamir, explained the challenges of organizing a wedding during a time of war and rocket fire.

“Several people reached out to me saying they were looking for a designer for a wedding that had been canceled. It was difficult to get back to the north from Ra'anana, but I understood that this is where I needed to be, and that I was needed now,” Zamir said.

The groom’s father, Yosef, expressed a defiant spirit typical of many Israelis in the face of Hezbollah’s ongoing attacks. His words reflected both national resilience and personal determination.

“No one will defeat us, Nasrallah won’t win,” Yosef said. “We’ll make him regret the day he dared to go to war with us and especially for trying to ruin my son’s wedding.”

While it was a day of celebration, the couple expressed hope that the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza and the displaced Israeli residents in the north would be able to return home after nearly a year.

“At this moment, we ask that all our hostages and soldiers return safely and that our family, evacuated from our home in Moshav Shomera nearly a year ago, will return there as well,” they said.

The Hezbollah terrorist organization, widely considered to be one of the Iranian regime's strongest proxies in the region, has suffered losses that have degraded its military capabilities in recent days and weeks.

Last week, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) eliminated senior members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, including its top commander Ibrahim Aqil, in an aerial strike in southern Beirut where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

Aqil was responsible for the 1983 bomb attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and U.S. Marine barracks, which killed over 300 people. In late July, Israel eliminated Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr.

On Monday, Israel Defense Forces launched “Operation Northern Arrows” during which the IAF struck over 1,600 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in a 24-hour bombardment. Lebanese sources reported that over 500 people had been killed but did not specify how many were civilians and how many were members of Hezbollah.