BEIRUT, 16 August 2006 — Israeli forces began leaving parts of south Lebanon yesterday as a UN truce largely held for a second day and the Lebanese Army prepared to move south. Thousands of refugees who had fled the monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah headed home to battered villages in the south.
In northern Israel, residents also returned after weeks away from their homes to escape cross-border Hezbollah rocket fire.
The Israeli Army, which had poured 30,000 troops into the south to fight Hezbollah, plans to start handing over some pockets of territory to UN troops in a day or two, Israeli officials and Western diplomats said. Israel’s top general, Dan Halutz, said Israeli forces could complete a withdrawal within 7 to 10 days, army radio reported.
In line with the UN Security Council resolution that halted the fighting, the Lebanese Army will begin moving 15,000 troops south of the Litani River tomorrow, a senior political source said. The force is assembling at various army bases.
“As we speak, the army is readying the force,” the source said, adding that Lebanese units would stay out of areas occupied by Israeli troops until UN peacekeepers move in.
Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Al-Murr has said the army will not disarm Hezbollah in the south.
The truce remains fragile. Israeli soldiers shot five Hezbollah fighters in two incidents in Lebanon yesterday, the Israeli Army said. It was not known whether any had been killed.
The army also said four Hezbollah mortar bombs landed near its troops overnight, causing no casualties. On Monday Israeli troops killed at least one Hezbollah fighter after the truce.
Israel’s quicker withdrawal plans reflect concern that its forces on the ground are easy targets for Hezbollah attack. Israeli troops left the Christian town of Marjayoun, the nearby town of Qlaiah and the village of Ghandouriyeh, scene of ferocious battles over the weekend, security sources said.
Much of Ghandouriyeh was devastated. In one area the shattered tracks of an Israeli armored vehicle lay near a blood-stained Israeli flak jacket. The bodies of five Hezbollah fighters were found elsewhere in the village.
Lebanese rescue workers pulled bodies from the rubble of destroyed houses in several border villages, witnesses said. The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon said it had not observed any breaches of the truce. It said initial assessments in three southern villages showed that between 50 and 80 percent of civilian houses had been destroyed.
Israel has said it will not withdraw fully until a beefed-up UN force and Lebanese Army troops are deployed in the south.
The general calm has prompted a chaotic tide of refugees flowing back to southern villages, despite the risk of unexploded munitions left over from the fighting and Israeli leaflet drops warning that it was not safe to return.
“People need to be aware the dangers are very high,” said Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
She said there had been at least eight incidents involving unexploded ordnance, but had no word on casualties.
The present commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, told France’s Le Monde newspaper it would take a year for the expanded UNIFIL to reach full strength.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, whose country may lead the force, was due in Beirut today to discuss its deployment, the reopening of Lebanon’s ports and airport, and humanitarian aid, France’s Foreign Ministry said.
In Damascus, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Hezbollah’s “victory” in the war with Israel had destroyed US plans to reshape the Middle East.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described Bashar’s speech as a “negative contribution” and canceled a trip to Syria planned for later yesterday.
At least 1,110 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed in the conflict.
