By Heather Sharp
BBC News, Metulla, north Israel
Barely 100m from a picnic spot in Israel's northern-most village, the yellow flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah flutters in the breeze.
It was through Metulla that the last Israeli soldiers drove as they withdrew unilaterally from Lebanon in 2000, ending their 18-year presence in the country.
The troops had held a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, aiming to protect Israel's northern border from militant attacks.
Now 10 years later, the scene is tranquil, although a major war was fought across this border in 2006, and the regional media is full of talk of Iranian-backed Hezbollah's growing arsenal.
"In Metulla, it's always business as usual," says local resident Jonathan Javor, 28. "You still have to pick fruit, you still have to open your hotel, no matter what's going on".
Metulla forms a finger of land jutting into Lebanon.
Its green orchards back right onto the border, overlooked by Lebanese villages on the hills beyond.
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, pushing as far as Beirut in an attempt to target Palestinian militants, but then drew back to hold a zone varying from about 5-20km (3-12 miles) into Lebanon, to protect border communities such as Metulla.
While many Lebanese civilians from the buffer zone crossed into Israel daily to work, Hezbollah and other militant groups fought a war of attrition against the Israelis and their Lebanese Christian allies, the South Lebanon Army.
On average, about two or three Israeli soldiers died each month. Link
