LEBANON: People from Bint Jbeil try to leave after fierce fighting between the Israeli army and Hizbollah wrecked their village

All over the ruined streets of southern Lebanon, families from border villages that have been cut off by 20 days of Israeli bombardment are desperately trying to flee, using the respite offered by a 48-hour halt to most air strikes. Villages right on the border are poor and have been cut off by the violence. Many residents do not own cars and cannot afford taxis, now charging 400 U.S. dollars for the journey. Those with cars are finding petrol stations shut or out of fuel. Those able to secure cars and fuel must make the agonising choice of risking death on the roads, where cars full of fleeing families have been hit by Israeli jets, or death in villages in the line of fire between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas. Some came from Aita Shaab, scene of a new Israeli ground incursion on Monday (July 31), others from Bint Jbeil, a Hizbollah stronghold which has seen the fiercest fighting of the war. After walking for hours in the mountains they speak of what they have been through. The Sabbagh family who escaped from Bint Jbeil tell their story to Reuters. "They told us there was 48 hours we can go and we left Bint Jbeil on foot, three hours walking. We can't stand anymore," said one woman. Another said the town had been destroyed. "There is no Bint Jbeil anymore. All Bint Jbeil was ruined. Our neighbourhood was the most destroyed of Bint Jbeil," she said. "There is no houses, everywhere is bombed, everything is ruined. People are dying," said the first woman. Most of those able to flee have long since gone after weeks of Israeli warnings to leave the south. Houses have been pulverised, power cables brought down, furniture and belongings mixed with rubble. In nearby villages, the story is similar. From the Hizbollah stronghold of Jibsheet, to Harouf, to Zefta, to Kfar Rumman, the streets are empty, all but one or two shops shuttered. Here and there are the shells of buildings destroyed by Israeli air raids, shop fronts blown out and streets covered with shattered glass, all abandoned by residents. Sidon, the nearest city that offers relative refuge from Israeli strikes, is already heaving with displaced people from villages further afield. Washing lines even hang outside the local court house, families sheltering in its barred cells. Israel launched its onslaught on Lebanon after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. At least 577 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister puts the toll at 750 including bodies still buried under rubble. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed.

ITN Source | August 1, 2006

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