LEBANON: While civilians, especially children, still getting killed and wounded by unexploded munition, medical teams survey the damage.

As guns fell silent under a U.N.-brokered truce to end five weeks of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon on Monday (August 14) the death toll continued to rise when one child was killed and others wounded by unexploded munitions. In Nabatieh one child was killed and several others wounded by unexploded ammunition "Children were playing or holding something from this (unexploded) munition and it exploded. One child was killed and a family of five was wounded," said a doctor at a local hospital. Security sources said several others who had ventured out to bombed villages had been injured by unexploded ammunition. Local television urged people to stay away from unidentified objects and soldiers combed the streets for possible explosives. Residents returning to the southern town of Bint Jbeil found their homes, roads and businesses incomplete ruins. The border town has seen some of the most intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hizbollah guerillas, where a number of fighters and troops were killed. A doctor at the local hospital said that during the fierce battles, medics were unable to evacuate wounded civilians. "Israel did not respect the hospital or anything. We were treating casualties brought in from nearby areas. We were not able to go far because we didn't want to be targeted. We were steadfast at the Bint Jbeil hospital," said Hussein Yousef. Houses along the route from Tyre to the village of Yater were in ruins. Civilians were scared of unexploded bombs on the streets and reluctant to enter the area yet, they said. A Hizbollah fighter said that despite the truce, the group will continue to fight Israel 'until victory'. "Having a truce or no truce means nothing. We are (fighting) legitimately against Israel until victory," he said. "They (the Israelis) tried to enter Ayta Al Shab several times but they failed. We believed in God. They were destroying houses over our heads and we would still come out alive," he added. Under a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted on Friday, Israeli forces must start to withdraw as foreign peacekeepers and Lebanese soldiers deploy in the south. Hizbollah must also pull its fighters out of southern Lebanon. Hizbollah has said it accepts the U.N. resolution, although it regards some aspects of it as unjust. The truce has not resolved many key issues including the fate of the two captured Israeli soldiers, the question of whether Hizbollah will disarm and the status of the Shebaa Farms area which is claimed by Lebanon but occupied by Israel. More than 1,100 people in Lebanon and 156 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, ignited by a July 12 cross-border raid by Hizbollah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers.

ITN Source | August 15, 2006

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