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In cars and on motorbikes, people trickled back into Beirut’s southern suburbs Friday, passing bombed-out buildings to check on homes and loved ones after a ceasefire began between Israel and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
“We’d been on the street going from place to place because there was no space in the shelters,” said Insaf Ezzedine, 42, who had fled the area’s Hay al-Sellom neighbourhood.<\/p>\n
AFP spoke to Ezzedine and others on the sidelines of a media tour organised by Hezbollah in several areas of the southern suburbs — a stronghold of the group, where journalists’ freedom of movement was restricted.<\/p>\n
The damage in parts of the suburbs caused by Israeli attacks since March 2 is enormous.<\/p>\n
“The strikes were very strong and the houses were damaged and shaken up — all the buildings are old in Hay al-Sellom,” Ezzedine said, as her young daughter clutched a doll on the back of their motorbike.<\/p>\n
“We hope the war will stop and we’ll all go back to our homes and live in peace. We want to live with our kids in safety,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We’re heading to my brother’s home because ours was badly damaged.”<\/p>\n
On one main road, a huge pile of concrete rubble was littered with items including solar panels and water tanks. Shopfronts opposite had blown-out metal doors and shattered glass.<\/p>\n
Families surveyed the destruction as they passed, some with belongings packed into their cars, and an occasional Hezbollah supporter flying the group’s yellow flag drove by.<\/p>\n
– ‘For the kids’ sake’ –<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, as blue-uniformed cleaners swept a street strewn with debris, Samia Lawand, 75, was in a car with her daughter and grandchildren.<\/p>\n
“We came to check on the house and to get a few things and found the place was damaged… now we’re leaving again,” she said, sitting in the front passenger seat.<\/p>\n
“The glass is shattered and everything is everywhere — you can’t stay there,” said her daughter Mariam, 42.<\/p>\n
On one major thoroughfare, the side of a building was blown off, exposing rooms with office furniture and even a dentist’s chair.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, opposite a bombed-out building with a blackened facade, mangled cars could be seen near a portrait of Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem.<\/p>\n
Close to an overpass, Hassan Hanoud, 34, said he was heading home with his children, wife and mother after fleeing to central Beirut.<\/p>\n
“We left for the kids’ sake,” he said, a young child in his lap.<\/p>\n
“The last time we went back, the doors and windows were broken,” said Hanoud.<\/p>\n
Now “the kids want to go home”, he added, a young girl sitting behind him holding a plush toy.<\/p>\n
In the Tahouitet al-Ghadir area, an AFP correspondent saw people gradually returning as shopkeepers cleared away debris or reopened stores.<\/p>\n
Residents hugged and cried, happy to see their loved ones again.<\/p>\n
– ‘Fear and hope’ –<\/p>\n
“I came back at midnight as soon as the ceasefire began,” said Mustafa, 65, who owns a garage and spent most of the war “going from tent to tent” near the Beirut seafront.<\/p>\n
“There’s no better feeling than coming back to your area and your people,” he added.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the southern suburbs, retired soldier Ezzedine Shahrour, 76, from south Lebanon’s Kfar Hammam, was wearing a black suit and carrying bread and other groceries.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been telling my children to take us home, but they say they can’t because the situation is still dangerous,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s fear and hope” after the ceasefire, said Shahrour, who has a son in the army and another in the security forces.<\/p>\n
Also walking by was Jaafar Ali, 73, who had fled to Beirut from the southern city of Tyre with his family, and who had come to check on relatives.<\/p>\n
“We left in our pyjamas. We don’t know how we got out. We don’t know what’s happened to the house,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’re happy (about the ceasefire), but we’ve paid a high price. Our homes were badly damaged. We’ve lost a lot… I feel like crying.<\/p>\n
“Thank God we’re still fine, but what about all the people who died under the rubble?” he asked.<\/p>\n
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