BEIRUT, 31 August 2006 — The Lebanese government will pay some $40,000 in compensation to each family whose house was destroyed by Israel in the 34-day war to help them start rebuilding, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said yesterday.
The offer excludes southern Beirut, where damage to residential areas was greatest, but where Hezbollah has already begun handing out its own $12,000 in cash to help families pay a year’s rent until it rebuilds their homes.
The government had been criticized for not moving fast enough to compensate Lebanese left homeless by Israeli air strikes, while Hezbollah began handing out cash only days after a truce was agreed two weeks ago.
“The Lebanese government will pay those who are rebuilding homes that are completely destroyed the sum of 50 million pounds ($33,100) as assistance per destroyed house regardless of its size or its contents,” Siniora told a news conference. “It also pledges the sum of 10 million Lebanese pounds for furniture and contents if they have been completely destroyed.” Speaking before leaving for a donors’ conference in Sweden, Siniora said 130,000 dwellings across Lebanon had been destroyed or damaged by Israeli air strikes in the war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.
Compensation will be paid in two parts, with homeowners eligible for the second payment only if they can prove they have spent the first on rebuilding. Contents compensation will be paid only after a house has been rebuilt.
Siniora said the government would also provide prefabricated houses to all whose homes had been destroyed so that they could stay in their villages until rebuilding was complete.
