A stationary cable car, an abandoned tourist van, empty roads -- the scene around Rosh Hanikra, an Israeli seaside kibbutz bordering Lebanon, looked like still life if not for the goats grazing languidly under the hot wind.
The kibbutz has over the years seen its share of rockets launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon, but this time, it has become a ghost town over fears that it could be the target of an Islamist incursion like the deadly attack by Hamas fighters in southern Israel.
Under cover of a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, Hamas militants breached Israel's border on Saturday, storming kibbutzim and gunning down civilians in the streets, at a rave party and in their homes, claiming more than 1,200 lives.
Israel has responded by declaring war on Hamas, pounding targets in Gaza where officials said more than 1,300 people have been killed.
Wary of Hezbollah -- also backed by Iran like Hamas -- in its north, Israel has rushed troops to villages like Rosh Hanikra. But terrified inhabitants were not taking any chances.
In the neighbouring town of Shlomi, Ida Lannkri said she was still "shaking with fear" hours after an anti-missile rocket fired from Lebanon landed near a military post on Wednesday morning.
"There was a loud boom that set fire to all of the mountain," said Lannkri, recalling the "smell of gunpowder".
From her balcony, Lannkri has a view of a green slope where a thick wall zig-zags across, marking the Israeli-Lebanese border.