Displaced families return home but find piles of rubble
A truce between Israel and Hezbollah, brokered by the United States and France, called for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.
For many Lebanese, the pause in fighting brought relief — but also heartache. Displaced families returned home to sift through the bombed-out ruins of their shops and apartments.
Drone footage of Qana in southern Lebanon, taken Thursday, shows ghostly, battered neighborhoods with smashed homes and giant craters gouged into the ground — the scale of destruction chilling in a town that has become synonymous with the killing of civilians in past wars.
During Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah, an Israeli strike on a residential building killed 27 civilians, a third of them children, according to U.N. figures. During its 1996 offensive, Israeli artillery shelling on a United Nations compound housing hundreds of displaced people in Qana killed at least 100 civilians and wounded scores more people.
"We are a town of martyrs," said Aref AbouKhalil, a 29-year-old taxi driver who checked on his ruined family home in Qana on Thursday. Those who lost family and friends in the Israeli bombardment of Qana over the past year, he said, felt the grief of 2006 and 1996 all over again.
"They're determined to destroy us, they keep trying, and now the town is destroyed," he said of Israeli strikes. "But we'll build it again."
In the same village near the port city of Tyre, Abu Ahmad Salameh stood in what was left of several buildings that belonged to his family. He was able to pull two carpets from under the rubble.
"All this damage can be rebuilt. This is our land and we will stay here no matter what," Salameh said. "It is painful to see the destruction. These are the homes of my parents, grandparents, daughter and my house."
He said that when the area was struck about two weeks ago, Hezbollah fighters found a safe full of jewelry and cash in the rubble of his house, and returned it to his family.
In the nearby village of Hanawei, Mariam Kourani, 56, walked through the rubble of what used to be her house and restaurant, watching as her son-in-law picked up some of his young daughter's clothes and toys from the ruins.
During their 37 years of marriage, Kourani and her husband ran a butcher shop in southern Lebanon, started a business selling serving containers and opened a small restaurant.
An Israeli airstrike in late September destroyed it all.
"This was my house, my dreams and my hard work," she said, holding back tears. She pointed to one of the serving containers she used to sell, and estimated her family’s total losses at $120,000.
Kourani is among the tens of thousands of residents who have started streaming back into southern Lebanon to check on their homes after the U.S.-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect early Wednesday. Intense Israeli airstrikes over the past two months leveled entire neighborhoods in eastern and southern Lebanon, and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which are predominantly Shiite areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong base of support. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced.
Like Kourani, many are returning home to find that their homes are gone.
The World Bank said earlier this month that housing has been the hardest hit sector with almost 100,000 units partially or fully damaged during the 14-month war, which intensified in late September. It estimated the damage at $3.2 billion.
Who will pay for the reconstruction is unclear. Iran has offered to help, but it’s under Western sanctions and its economy has suffered. Kourani said Hezbollah members have told her those who lost a house during the war will be given a place to stay until their homes are rebuilt. After spending thousands of dollars in rent for the two months the family was displaced in the village of Qarnayel in Mount Lebanon, Kourani said her priority is to fix their butcher shop across the street so they can start earning money.
"We are starting from below zero," she said.
- A history of loss -
Ali Saleh lost his home in 2006, during the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. He was able to rebuild when the gulf nation of Qatar funded the reconstruction of several areas in southern Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Saleh drove to his hometown near the border with Israel, only to find that it had happened again: his two-story home was destroyed.
"All the memories are gone," he said, as he smoked a cigarette.
The 59-year-old man drove back with his wife and three of his six children hoping to find a place to stay close to his hometown of Aita al-Shaab, a village that witnessed some of the most intense fighting.
"It is a disaster-stricken village," he said.
In the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, 34-year-old Souad al-Outa walked around what was left of her home, shocked.
She knew her neighborhood had been badly hit like many other parts of this city, a designated UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its ancient Roman ruins. She was not prepared for the devastation she saw when she went back on Thursday.
A strike earlier this month killed multiple people in the street nearby, she said, including several of her husband's relatives.
"I feel like my heart has come out of its place," she said as she looked around what used to be her children’s bedroom.
"We had a beautiful life here."
- Homes can be rebuilt -
Back in Hanouiyeh, Kourani said the family left their home in the early afternoon on Sept. 23, the day the war intensified, and moved in with relatives a few miles away. Shortly after they got there, they received a call saying that their house had been destroyed.
As the Israeli airstrikes increased, they fled north to Qarnayel, where they rented an apartment for 1,000 a month in addition to $250 for electricity and water.
Once the ceasefire went into effect, she drove back home with her husband, son and her daughter’s family. They spent the night with relatives.
Despite everything, Kourani said she is embarrassed to speak about her material losses at a time when thousands of people have been killed, including friends and relatives and Hezbollah fighters among them.
"Israel has filled our land with blood. Our big loss is our men," she said.
