As truce takes effect, displaced Lebanese come home to find piles of rubble

HANOUIYEH, Lebanon (AP) — During their 37 years of marriage, Mariam Kourani and her husband ran a butcher shop in southern Lebanon, started a business selling serving containers and opened a small restaurant.

An Israeli airstrike in late September destroyed it all.

Walking through the rubble of what used to be her house and restaurant in the village of Hanouiyeh, Kourani, 56, watched as her son-in-law picked up some of his young daughter’s clothes and toys from the ruins.

“This was my house, my dreams and my hard work,” she said, holding back tears. She pointed to one of the serving containers she used to sell and estimated her family’s total losses at $120,000.

Kourani is among the tens of thousands of residents who have started streaming back into southern Lebanon to check on their homes after the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, mediated by France and the United States, went into effect early Wednesday.

Nearly 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced over the past two months as Israel stepped up its bombing campaign in a bid to stem Hezbollah’s persistent, year-long rocket fire, which has prevented some 60,000 residents of northern Israel from returning home.

Hezbollah-led forces, unprovoked, began attacking Israel on a near-daily basis on October 8, 2023 — a day after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza. Fearing Hezbollah would mount a similar attack, and amid the relentless Hezbollah fire, Israel evacuated communities along the border with Lebanon.

The Iran-backed terror group has said its rocket attacks, which later expanded to central Israel, were in support of Gaza amid the war there.

Hezbollah, like Hamas, is avowedly committed to destroying Israel. It deployed its military infrastructure throughout southern Lebanon, including placing rockets in people’s homes.

The Israeli strikes leveled entire buildings in eastern and southern Lebanon, and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which are predominantly Shiite areas where the Iran-backed terror group enjoys solid support.

Israel said it targeted buildings used by Hezbollah. In southern Lebanon many of the homes were used to store weapons or linked to a tunnel network.

Like Kourani, many are returning to find that their homes are gone.

The World Bank said earlier this month that housing has been the hardest-hit sector, with almost 100,000 units partially or fully damaged during the 14-month war, which intensified in late September. The bank estimated the damage at $3.2 billion.

Who will pay for the reconstruction is unclear. Iran has offered to help, but it’s under Western sanctions and its economy has suffered. Kourani said Hezbollah members have told her those who lost a house during the war will be given a place to stay until their homes are rebuilt. After spending thousands of dollars in rent for the two months the family was displaced in the village of Qarnayel in Mount Lebanon, Kourani said her priority is to fix their butcher shop across the street so they can start earning money.

“We are starting from below zero,” she said.

A history of loss

Ali Saleh lost his home in 2006, during the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. He was able to rebuild when the Gulf nation of Qatar funded the reconstruction of several areas in southern Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Saleh drove to his hometown near the border with Israel, only to find that it had happened again: his two-story home was destroyed.

“All the memories are gone,” he said, as he smoked a cigarette.

The 59-year-old drove back with his wife and three of his six children, hoping to find a place to stay close to his hometown of Aita al-Shaab, a border village and Hezbollah stronghold that witnessed some of the most intense fighting.

“It is a disaster-stricken village,” he said.

In the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, 34-year-old Souad al-Outa walked around what was left of her home, shocked.

She knew her neighborhood had been badly hit like many other parts of this city, a designated UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its ancient Roman ruins. She was not prepared for the devastation she saw when she went back on Thursday.

A strike earlier this month killed multiple people in the street nearby, she said, including several of her husband’s relatives.

“I feel like my heart has come out of its place,” she said as she looked around what used to be her children’s bedroom.

“We had a beautiful life here.”

Homes can be rebuilt

About 170 kilometers (105 miles) southwest of Baalbek, in the village of Qana near the port city of Tyre, Abu Ahmad Salameh stood in what was left of several buildings that belonged to his family. He was able to pull two carpets from under the rubble.

“All this damage can be rebuilt. This is our land and we will stay here no matter what,” Salameh said. “It is painful to see the destruction. These are the homes of my parents, grandparents, daughter and my house.”

He said that when the area was struck about two weeks ago, Hezbollah fighters found a safe full of jewelry and cash in the rubble of his house, and returned it to his family.

Back in Hanouiyeh, Kourani said she and her family left their home in the early afternoon on September 23, the day Israel invaded, and moved in with relatives a few miles away. Shortly after they got there, they received a call saying that their house had been destroyed.

As the Israeli airstrikes increased, they fled north to Qarnayel, where they rented an apartment for $1,000 a month in addition to $250 for electricity and water.

Once the ceasefire went into effect, she drove back home with her husband, son and her daughter’s family. They spent the night with relatives.

Despite everything, Kourani said she is embarrassed to speak about her material losses at a time when thousands of people have been killed, including friends and relatives and Hezbollah fighters among them.

“Israel has filled our land with blood. Our big loss is our men,” she said.

The IDF estimates that some 3,500 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s attacks since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 45 civilians. In addition, 76 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes, attacks on Israel, and in the ensuing ground operation in southern Lebanon. Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.