Gulf between Hezbollah and Lebanese state grows wider as Israeli occupation continues

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Fatima al-Ashkar used toys to explain to her children that their father had been killed.

She arranged toy soldiers in a mock battle and picked up an airplane, miming an air raid on the plastic men below.

“I started explaining to them: ‘Israel came and bombed here.

Daddy was here.

Daddy was martyred.

Daddy was protecting us from Israel,’” said al-Ashkar, a 26-year-old resident of Markaba, south Lebanon.

Her husband, Mohammed Ali, who was a member of Hezbollah, was killed fighting Israel in the region in early April.