Displaced people make their way back to their home crossing the bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, which was hit earlier in an Israeli strike, after a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Qasmiyeh, Lebanon, Friday. Reuters-Yonhap
QASMIYEH, Lebanon — Lebanese children leaned out of cars flashing victory signs on Friday as they bumped across a makeshift bridge erected overnight across the Litani River after a truce with Israel - but bombed-out ruins and hard times await.
Nearly a quarter of Lebanese have been forced from their homes, both in the south and other Shi'ite Muslim-majority areas, ordered by Israel to leave as it levelled villages and city districts and sent in troops over six weeks of war.
Israel says it has avoided targeting civilians in a military campaign it described as necessary to protect its own people from Lebanon's Iran-backed Shi'ite Hezbollah group.
A 10-day ceasefire announced on Thursday is now bringing respite, allowing many of the displaced to return to what remains of their homes while they pray for a lasting truce.
But tens of thousands will be unable to go back - their homes in ruins or lying in areas still held by Israel's military.
Lebanese want permanent end to wars
The Halabi family's silver sedan was among the throng of vehicles crowding the coast road to head back over the Litani, where Israel destroyed the last bridge connecting the south with the rest of Lebanon on Thursday.
Workmen with bulldozers and diggers worked through the night under floodlights to build an earthen dyke in place of the bridge at Qasmiyeh, its twisted metal piled nearby.
After 10 hours in the car - on a journey that usually takes one - the family passed huge piles of rubble as they drove slowly into Tyre, a major historic Lebanese city in the south, heading back to their home and relatives.
Source: Korea Times News
