Just a few hundred meters from the Lebanon border, where the thud of Hezbollah rockets has become background noise, a small cafe refuses to close. This is Bela Cafe run by Mirya Menasche, who serves hope with every cup.
For the handful of civilians and soldiers who remain in Metula, it is a fragile pocket of normalcy. Here, for a few stolen minutes, the war outside ceases to exist. A sip of coffee drowns out the sound of incoming fire. For a moment, they forget they live in one of the world's most dangerous war zones, where uncertainty is the only certainty.
"I love to visit here once a day. This coffee joint helps me relax and be normal," says Nadaf, who lives nearby.
Behind the counter stands Mirya Menashe, the cafe's owner and its only staff. In this hardest of times, she works alone. She serves espresso, sandwiches, and something rarer: relief. She greets soldiers by name. She remembers how neighbors take their coffee. She makes a town under siege feel like family again.
"I left once," Mirya said. "In 2023, when the rockets started falling every day, I took my family and we fled Metula like everyone else. The town was empty."
But a few months ago, she came back. "I asked myself, if we all leave, who defends this place? We have to be together with our soldiers who risk their lives defending frontiers of the country," Mirya said.
So she reopened Bela Cafe. Located a few hundred meters from Hezbollah's launch sites across the border, the risk is constant. Sirens interrupt orders. Customers duck under tables. But the cafe stays open.
Besides border residents, Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldiers posted along the Lebanon frontier are regulars. Rifles slung on shoulders, they enjoy their favourite brew and leave behind their exhaustion, stress and strain.
Asked if she is not scared living in war zone, Miriya asked this reporter, "Are you scared? When you can travel hundreds of kilometres from India to come here for work, why can't I work at my home town?"
Ambience of this stonewalled structure is so good that for a moment people forget there is any war, till a rocket piercing the sky explodes and shatters the peace. Or the boom of artillery fire targetting Hezbollah shakes the ground underfoot.
Residents who trickled back to Metula, say Bela Cafe is the reason they stay.
"The rockets do not stop, neither does our will to live," Mirya said. "This cafe is my way of fighting back. If a soldier or a neighbor can sit here and smile for five minutes, then Hezbollah has already lost. This is our land. Nothing scares us," she added.
In Metula, where entire streets are shut and homes abandoned, Bela Cafe pours coffee. And with every cup, it pours defiance.
