LEBANON: Thousands of Lebanese refugees head home to south Lebanon as UN truce between Israel and Hizbollah holds.

A day after the ceasefire was finally reached between Israeli forces and Hizbollah guerrillas, tens of thousands of Lebanese started returning Tuesday (August 15) to the homes and villages they fled a month ago because of Israel's bombardment. The "cessation of hostilities" remains fragile, but the calm has prompted a chaotic tide of Shi'ite Muslim refugees flowing back to their homes, despite the risk of unexploded munitions left over from the fighting. Thousands of vehicles jammed a bombed-out coastal highway linking Beirut to the south from the early hours of Tuesday. Cars, vans and pick up trucks packed with families and with belongings strapped to the roof crawled along makeshift roads. Many had pictures of Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah plastered on their windows and bonnets, and the refugees inside would flash victory signs and smile as they passed. Lebanese refugees started to return to a Beirut southern suburb which saw the fiercest Israeli attacks on the area, considered to be Hizbollah stronghold. Many buildings, shops and compounds were destroyed, if not reduced to rubble, over the 31 days of the war. Resident Mohamad Sweif had come back to see how bad the damage to his home was. "We have been displaced since the beginning of the war. We had only lived here for one month, now we came to find all this destruction. Our home is mostly cracked, what can we say? It is destruction all over the place," he said. Refugees staying in schools in Sidon, which have been used as shelters for thousands of Lebanese fleeing from the southern region, were also packing their belongings and eager to get home. Ahead of their journey, refugees were given aid for the last time before heading to their new destination. "We have our belongings. We are going back to our land (village). We are going back," said one man. But many will face the same fate as Im Hamdi and her five children, who returned to their home in northern Tyre on Tuesday to find it in ruins following weeks of Israeli raids on the area. She said that she fled with her children before Israel's offensive in the north of Tyre began and found shelter in the impoverished Palestinian refugee camp of al Bas, in Tyre city. Many families like Im Hamdi's have returned to find their homes destroyed. Im Hamdi said she does not know where to go with her children. But in spite of the damages inflicted by Israel's bombardment, Im Hamdi said Hizbollah emerged as victorious in the five-week conflict. "Everything in the house has been destroyed except this picture, which shows the world that our people are believers and they are strong," she said, holding a picture of Nasrallah. Witnesses said refugees returning to their devastated southern villages, cheered and talked of "victory against Israel". In a televised speech on Monday, the Hizbollah leader said his fighters had achieved a "strategic and historic victory" over Israel and that it was the "wrong time" to publicly discuss disarming them. Nasrallah said Hizbollah would immediately begin repairing homes damaged by Israeli strikes and would pay a year's rent and other costs to help the owners of about 15,000 destroyed houses. Israeli warplanes, however, dropped leaflets on Tuesday warning refugees not to head home to south Lebanon until the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers are deployed in the region. "The situation in south Lebanon will remain dangerous as long as the Lebanese state does not deploy the Lebanese army and the international force," the Arabic leaflet said. "For your safety, we warn you against heading south until the Lebanese army and the international force are deployed," said the statement from the "Command of the Israeli Defence Forces". With a third of the estimated 750,000 displaced people who had taken shelter in Beirut and northern Lebanon expected to return south in the next few days, aid workers scrambled to send supplies to southern Lebanon. A Canadian ship carrying aid for the Red Cross arrived at Beirut's port, a day after the U.N. World Food Programme sent 24 trucks of food, medicine and shelter material to the southern port of Tyre and other aid groups re-stocked supplies. The WFP said it was gearing up to send tonnes of relief goods by sea to the southern port of Tyre, which was cut off a week ago when Israel bombed the last main bridge over the Litani. It said U.N. peacekeepers had rebuilt the crossing and Lebanese security forces were clearing roads to help people return to villages in the area. UNHCR was to distribute 50,000 tents, 230,000 mattresses and 172,000 blankets, mainly south of the Litani river. 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 16, 2006

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