Lebanese can't wait for Israeli pullout

AL-BAIYADA, Lebanon (Reuters) - The white-and-blue Star of David flag flutters from an Israeli army post near this Lebanese border village, reminding residents of the fragility of a truce between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.

Soldiers run night patrols a few hundred meters (yards) from the heart of the village, around 6 km (4 miles) from the border, and a helicopter delivers supplies to the post every morning.

Israeli troops have yet to hand over some positions in south Lebanon to U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army, keeping villagers jittery that violence might erupt again and disrupt their struggle to resume normal life after the 34-day war.

"We are scared that anyone may fire at them (the Israelis). We don't want another war," said Salem Olayyan.

Hizbollah fighters ignited the war by capturing two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid, but have observed the U.N.-brokered truce that halted the fighting on August 14.

"They (the Israelis) will destroy the village again. We cannot face their warplanes," Olayyan said, standing outside his house whose ground floor was burned beyond recognition in the fighting.

Minutes later, an Israeli plane roared overhead and his sister Ibtisam panicked. "Oh dear, oh my God. I hope it's not an air strike," she trembled, scuttling inside the house.

ON THE RIGHT TRACK?

Major-General Alain Pellegrini, commander of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force, said a joint meeting with Lebanese and Israeli officers on Monday had brought closer a full Israeli troop withdrawal in line with Security Council Resolution 1701.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on Israel to complete its pullout once 5,000 U.N. troops are on the ground. Pellegrini said at the weekend it could take two weeks to reach that number from the 3,100 already in the south.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army says it reserves the right to patrol border zones and destroy Hizbollah weapons caches.

In border villages such as Aita al-Shaab, a Hizbollah stronghold and scene of fierce battles during the war, residents say Israeli incursions and the buzzing presence of surveillance drones are a feature of their daily lives.

The Israeli military on Friday destroyed a bunker in the village it said was filled with Hizbollah weapons.

"It felt like an earthquake," said Ibrahim Teheini, 50, clearing dust in front of his damaged shop. He said Hizbollah fighters used the area during the war but has not maintained any armed presence in the village since the truce took hold.

Israeli troops also occasionally detain Lebanese men and release them after questioning, prompting villagers to observe an undeclared curfew for fear of meeting an Israeli patrol.

"There's still an atmosphere of war," said Mohammed Bajouq, sitting a few meters from an unexploded Israeli missile. "People don't go out late at night unless it's urgent."

Lebanon says the presence of Israeli troops also slows efforts to rebuild destroyed houses and utilities.

"We have no electricity and we have problems with running water and no one has helped us," said Umm Ali, an old woman wearing a headscarf and sitting on a plastic chair in front of what is left of her small supermarket at al-Baiyada.

An Israeli bomb punched a big hole in the back wall of her store and scattered groceries on the shrapnel-littered ground. A bottle of water with a label in Hebrew lay nearby.

When told the Lebanese army was waiting for the Israelis to withdraw before deploying in the area, she said: "So they are scared to come and you think we were not?"

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