LEBANON: Tyre residents begin coming out of shelters minutes after truce comes into effect, and search for bodies begins as refugees who fled Israeli bombardment head 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 truce is the first step in a process that includes the deployment of a 15,000-strong United Nations force in southern Lebanon to help ensure peace after a war that has claimed around 1,100 lives in Lebanon and 154 in Israel. An army spokesman said some Israeli forces started withdrawing from southern Lebanon on Monday shortly after a U.N.-brokered truce between Israel and Hizbollah went into effect. Residents of Tyre came out of their shelters minutes after the truce came into effect. But residents said they did not trust Israel's commitment to a lasting ceasefire. "With regard to the the truce, everyone in the south doesn't trust Israel and its commitment to international law. It took Israel 28 years to implement resolution 452 and that was only due to the resistance (2000 withdrawal from the south). People here are cautious because they don't trust israel," said Ghassan Faran. On Sunday, Israel's cabinet approved a U.N. Security Council resolution to end the fighting and deploy the U.N. force to help enforce the truce. The Lebanese government and Hizbollah have also agreed to the resolution. Both Israel and Hizbollah, however, have said they would respond to any violation of the truce by the other side. Rescue workers began searching for bodies trapped under rubble of areas hit in the four weeks of fighting. In Tyre, army and civil defence personnel searched through the rubble of a military base hit last week during Israel's bombardment. As the search for the dead began, several thousand displaced Lebanese headed for their homes in south Lebanon on Monday shortly after the guns fell silent. Hundreds of cars jammed a narrow road leading south from the port city of Sidon. Most roads and bridges to south Lebanon were bombed by Israel during the conflict. "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. Around 1,100 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 154 Israelis, including 114 soldiers, have been killed in the war, which was triggered when Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

ITN Source | August 14, 2006

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