The New York Times reported on Saturday that although Israel and Hezbollah insist that they do not want a large-scale war, they are prepared for it, and despite diplomatic efforts to find ways to reduce the violence along the border, fears about the outbreak of a “comprehensive war” between Hezbollah and the Israeli army still control many Lebanese, as the escalation between the two parties continues since October 8.

Hezbollah said it would not stop targeting Israel as long as the war in the Gaza Strip continued, “although the number of displaced people from villages and towns in southern Lebanon exceeded the number of displaced people from northern Israel, whose plight did not become a political issue, partly because the Lebanese government is so weak that it cannot help them, and many of them support Hezbollah, which distributed aid and cash grants to them,” according to the newspaper.

“Life has become difficult” after months of clashes, said Asmaa Alawieh, an accountant in the town of Bint Jbeil, which “seemed deserted, its streets empty and its market closed, after months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel across the nearby border, which has forced many residents to flee,” the newspaper quotes. Her two children have left school, while her husband, a plumber, has been unable to find any work after their displacement.

“There is no plan,” added Alawiya, 32. “We have no idea what to prepare for, because we don’t know what will happen.”

The newspaper notes that in a central square in the town this summer, Hezbollah put up huge banners for the triple funeral of a man the militant group said was one of its followers and his two sisters, all of whom were killed when Israel bombed their home in the southern town of Bint Jbeil.

As the coffins arrived, military music rang out, and the few hundred remaining residents came to pay their respects.

Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October, Hezbollah has been waging a second, smaller battle along the Lebanese-Israeli border to hinder Israeli forces and aid its ally in Gaza, the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israeli bombardment there has killed hundreds of people, displaced more than 150,000 in both countries and left the border area a ghost town strewn with rubble.

“Now fears of a wider war have spread, after Israel killed a senior Hezbollah official in response to an attack from Lebanon that killed 12 children and teenagers in an Israeli-controlled town (Majdal Shams), in which the group denied involvement. Hours after the killing, a Hamas leader was assassinated in Iran (Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh), with Iranian and Hamas officials blaming Israel,” the newspaper reported.

Hezbollah and Tehran have vowed to retaliate against Israel, and the situation has left many Lebanese anxious about when the response will be, how big it will be, and whether it will ignite a larger conflagration that will leave Lebanon even more vulnerable.

For months, most people in Lebanon did not feel the fighting directly. Highways were clogged with cars, and restaurants in wealthy areas of Beirut were packed on weekends. But with airlines canceling flights and foreign embassies warning their citizens to leave Lebanon, anxiety about the future has spread far beyond the border area where the fighting has mostly been confined.

The fighting has already transformed southern Lebanon, where the government says more than 98,000 people have fled southern towns and villages, many of which have been badly damaged by Israel in strikes aimed at killing Hezbollah fighters and weakening their military might. More than 515 people have been killed in Lebanon since Oct. 8, including more than 100 civilians, the government says.

The newspaper says: "The south has long been Hezbollah territory, the armed group founded in the 1980s to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000."

It is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and other countries, and now, it is clearer than ever that Hezbollah is in control of the area. Journalists must coordinate visits to the area with Hezbollah, and the Lebanese army, which grants journalists permits, asks whether the trip has been approved by the group.

Towns and villages across the south are decorated with Hezbollah flags, banners and shrines to the group's "martyrs" killed fighting Israel.

The newspaper quotes Zeinab Bazzi, 57, who remained in the south despite the war and had no intention of leaving: “God protects the party,” she was indifferent to the possibility of a larger war. “If they want to expand it,” she said of the Israelis, “we will expand it.”

But that sentiment was not shared in the nearby town of Rmeish, the newspaper reported, where Maronite Christians live in an island of relative calm amid Shiite Muslim villages where fighting rages.

More people were milling around outside and more shops were open, including a hair salon where Rebecca Nasrallah, 22, got her hair done for her brother's wedding.

Nasrallah (no relation to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah) said her family considered postponing the ceremony, but decided to go ahead because the end of the war did not appear imminent. “People want to get married,” she said, adding that life should not stop because of “Hezbollah and its war.”

Israel has not directly targeted the town, and Hezbollah fighters are avoiding doing so, but residents hear frequent explosions from strikes on nearby villages, and many have fled.

The war has drained the local economy, he said. The fighting has kept farmers off their land, last year's olive crop died on the trees because the harvest was too dangerous, and all construction has stopped.