Lebanese return to devastation in Beirut suburb

"When we were young -- the age of my children -- we were forced to leave the south to Beirut by Israeli bombardment.

"Now we have had children and they have been forced to leave," she said, her son and daughter at her side as they walked through the southern Beirut suburbs pummelled by Israel in its war with Hizbollah.

They found their home destroyed when they returned on Monday under the cover of the calm brought by a 48-hour suspension of air raids over southern Lebanon.

"The house cannot be found. All the houses are blended into one pile of rubble. You can't tell where one building ends and the other begins. You can't tell one thing from another, not even one street from another," she said.

Air strikes have hit Hizbollah offices in the suburbs, a stronghold for the guerrilla group. Bombing since the conflict erupted on July 12 has reduced swathes of the area to rubble.

"This is the second time we've been forced to leave by Israel. God destroy Israel and strengthen the resistance," Ramadan said.

Ramadan and her family, like tens of thousands of Lebanese, are living in a school, seeking refuge from three weeks of Israeli bombardment which has forced 750,000 people from their homes and killed at least 578 people.

Hizbollah attacks have killed 51 Israelis.

LIVES ON HOLD

The southern suburbs are largely deserted. Some who have fled trickled back to check on their homes and grab whatever they could take with them.

Ali Faqih and his wife swept up broken glass in their apartment, but were glad to find it still standing.

"Thank God it's okay," he said, carrying a plastic bag stuffed with baby clothes back to the school where his family are staying. "We left under bombardment. We didn't take anything," he said.

His life is on hold until the war ends.

"If there's a cease-fire, then tomorrow we'll come, the house will be cleaned up and we'll fix the windows."

Others were not so lucky.

The shoes Hajina Najuibi was carrying in a plastic bag were some of the few possessions she had been able to salvage from her flat. "I went home, I found it all burnt out, the whole building," said the mother of five.

Mohammed al-Husseini's home had survived air raids which destroyed the offices of Hizbollah's television station next door. "The building is still standing, but you can't really call it a home any more," he said.

"All the damage can all be repaired. Sure, it's a loss, but the important thing is that we win," he said.

"If my wife were to die, I could marry another," he said, laughing with his spouse. "If I were to die, she could marry again. But dignity, you can't recover that."

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