AMNA NAWAZ: This week, Jews around the world are observing Passover, the Festival of Liberation that marks the historic exodus from ancient Egypt.

But, this year, joy is tempered with loss and trauma.

More than 160,000 Israelis will mark the holiday while displaced from their homes, as the war with Hamas continues.

Still others have empty chairs at the dinner table, their loved ones still held captive by Hamas.

Ali Rogin has more.

ALI ROGIN: In the rugged hills of Northern Israel, Metula's mayor patrols his town where now no one lives.

DAVID AZULAI, Mayor of Metula, Israel (through translator): This is Lebanon.

ALI ROGIN: Lebanon is so close, that this border town of 2,000 had to be evacuated under government orders.

David Azulai moves around in a golf cart.

He says it's faster to escape when the rockets crash.

DAVID AZULAI: This is a synagogue.

ALI ROGIN: For Azulai, his town is nothing of what it once was, especially now, at Passover.

DAVID AZULAI (through translator): It's very sad.

It shouldn't be this way.

It's very apocalyptic.

ALI ROGIN: Since October 7, Israel's northern border with Lebanon is now an undeclared second front line.

Hezbollah fires rockets and missiles weekly into Metula.

Nearly a quarter of Metula's 640 homes have been damaged.

And only a handful of civilians like David chose to stay behind, carrying an automatic rifle always.

DAVID AZULAI (through translator): This year, we are not going to celebrate Passover.

It's very hard to celebrate when your family and your town is not with you.

ALI ROGIN: His office is now in a bomb shelter.

He says none of this is normal.

DAVID AZULAI (through translator): Every mayor needs to represent and take care of his citizens, a place that's alive, that has places to work, children in school and day care.

And, here, there is nothing.

DAVID, Resident of Metula, Israel: No family, no work, no nothing, no personal life.

We came back to the times that we've been in the military.

That's what are doing, defending our home.

ALI ROGIN: Another resident, David, in combat gear, helps guard the entrance to Metula.

DAVID: I'm not going to be with my family.

My family is doing Passover far away from here.

I am now going to do Passover with our new family, all of the guys that lives in Metula and decided to stay here and defend our homes and our village.

ALI ROGIN: Many families from Metula have fled just 40 miles to the south to Tiberias, an ancient city from biblical times on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, where Scripture says Jesus walked on water.

Today, it's a haven for those displaced by war.

The Sofia Hotel is a home away from home for such families, like Rabbi Israel Pachter and wife, Sara.

They left Metula with their 11 children.

They struggle away from home.

They say they will overcome.

RABBI ISRAEL PACHTER, Metula, Israel: Part of the winning is to keep our morality up.

And this is what we are trying to do.

ALI ROGIN: At the seder dinner, Rabbi Pachter tries to keep the Passover spirit high with traditional songs.

The table is set with special delicacies.

And the room is peopled with a community that's shaken, but resilient.

RABBI ISRAEL PACHTER: You see the people trying to be happy, to do our best to sit together, to talk, to sing, not to be all the time sad, because, if we will be sad, it's the winning of our enemy.

ALI ROGIN: That's Sara's granddaughter.

And it is that childhood joy she wants to protect.

SARA PACHTER, Displaced Israeli: I don't want my kids to be depressed.

I don't want them to feel that this is the end of the world.

No, we're strong.

ALI ROGIN: But even this festive dinner is not without despair.

There were sunglasses at each table to remind them of how so many of their country men, women, and children are kept in darkness now for more than 200 days.

Dozens of Israeli families still wait for their loved ones held captive by Hamas.

SARA PACHTER: Every Passover, I buy myself a new dress and new shoes.

And, this year, I couldn't buy.

I just -- I felt, how can I buy a dress and new shoes when there's hostages?

For me, it's very hard because I think about the mothers of the hostages, what hell they go through.

I feel like all the world should get up and scream and get those hostages out.

It breaks my heart.

ALI ROGIN: That pain during Passover has for 22 years been the air breathed in Netanya, here 20 miles north of Tel Aviv.

In 2002, this hotel was the target of the deadliest attack on Israel by Hamas during the Second Intifada.

A suicide bomber disguised as a woman stormed into a seder dinner, killing 30 and injuring 140.

RINA HAMANI, Netanya, Israel, Resident: What we get at the Park Hotel before 22 years, it's like the 9/11 in America.

And what we get now in October 7, in 7 October, it is much more, much more.

ALI ROGIN: Rina Hamani's husband, Ami (ph), was the hotel's duty manager and among those killed while trying to stop the bomber.

RINA HAMANI: It was Ami, my husband, and me and all the children.

ALI ROGIN: Hamani had to raise their six children, all boys, by herself.

She was also the manager of the hotel and had to keep it running.

Every Passover is a grim reminder of her loss.

Given what she suffered at the hands of Hamas, October 7 did not surprise her.

RINA HAMANI: We know exactly that Hamas wants to kill us.

They don't want us to be in Israel.

I have no illusions that they will want -- will say we want peace every day, some days, because, 22 years before, my husband has been killed.

I think the time before and I think that now the same.

They want to kill us.

This is Yaeb (ph) and his wife and his girls.

ALI ROGIN: This Passover, as she has for the past two decades, Rina relies on her family to manage her grief.

RINA HAMANI: Americans have to understand that we have to finish with Hamas.

We can't live with them.

They have to -- Hamas, the Palestinians have -- the Palestinian population has to change the Hamas.

ALI ROGIN: The rituals of Passover this year in Israel are in many ways the same, steeped in tradition as always, from the lighting of candles to reading the story of the exodus from ancient Egypt.

But those rituals are also forever changed.

Now there is also a prayer for the hostages in Gaza and a resolve that a Passover like this will not come again.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Ali Rogin.