LEBANON: Rescue workers search through rubble of Beirut's devastated southern suburb while refugees wait to see if it is safe to return home

A U.N.-brokered ceasefire to end the month-long war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas went into effect at 0500 GMT on Monday (August 14), and Lebanese security sources said the guns had fallen silent across southern Lebanon. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) took advantage of the peace to drive its largest convoy of aid yet into Lebanon's war-torn south. "Twenty-four trucks, with approximately 180 metric tonnes of food assistance, and also 20 thousand litres of water, which will provide sufficient food for 2 and a half thousand people for a month," said logistics supervisor Matthew Hollingworth as the convoy of trucks prepared to wind its way through the city streets. Several thousand displaced Lebanese were also heading home to south Lebanon on Monday, shortly after guns fell silent. Hundreds of cars jammed a bomb-ravaged highway leading south from the port city of Sidon. Most roads and bridges to south Lebanon were hit by Israel during the conflict. Bulldozers scrambled to fill pit holes to create a make-shift dirt road on which cars could drive through and make their way home. The mood among the convoys heading south was joyful. Some said they were going to check on their properties and then go back to the safety of the north while others said they were returning for good. "We are returning because of the truce. We are going back to our villages, towns and land. We are victorious. I hope this truce lasts," said one refugee. Up to one million people fled their towns and villages, fleeing the fighting. Many remained trapped in villages worse hit in the bombardment. Two ships carrying United Nations humanitarian charted by WFP (World Food Programme) aid were being unloaded at Beirut port on Monday and are scheduled to head south to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of people in war-torn areas. "At the moment, it's just charging in Beirut so we will feed some people in Beirut, but we also hope for the vessel to go south tomorrow to Tyre and then distribute by means of our convoys further south from there," said one WFP spokesperson. Aid groups said they needed swift access to southern Lebanon to help 100,000 people stranded in the area south of the Litani river, which has not been reached by aid convoys for a week. Tyre has seen some of the fiercest bombardments in recent weeks, with many buildings and roads totally devastated by the shelling. Rescue workers continued searching for bodies trapped under rubble of areas hit in the four weeks of fighting. "Three days ago, Israeli warplanes hit this the building and destroyed it. There is someone (corpse) under the rubble. We have been here since the morning trying to retrieve the body," said a rescue worker. The 'Dahiyeh', a Hizbollah stronghold in Beirut, has also been devastated by almost five weeks of bombardment. While many of the neighbourhood's residents fled the bombardment in recent weeks, there are fears that many of those who remained were trapped under the rubble. Residents and family members watched closely as rescue workers and bulldozers dug through the levelled buildings. Lebanese refugees who fled Beirut's southern suburb, an area repeatedly bombed by Israeli warplanes and navy boats, returned to find their houses and shops completely destroyed. "I came here to find out that my house is completely destroyed. Our shop destroyed and my son's two shops also destroyed but despite all that we are still victorious," said Siham Al-Sabbagh from the southern suburb. And resident Mahmoud Taha added angrily: "Israel is an cruel state and America is the greatest evil, a cancer that we want to uproot. We have been suffering since 1948." More than 1,100 people in Lebanon and 156 Israelis were killed during the conflict sparked by a July 12 cross-border raid by Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers.

ITN Source | August 14, 2006

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