Thousands of displaced head back to south Lebanon

SIDON, Lebanon, Aug 14 (Reuters) Several thousand displaced Lebanese headed for south Lebanon today shortly after guns fell silent in line with a UN-brokered truce to end five weeks of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah.

Hundreds of cars jammed a bomb-ravaged highway leading south from the port city of Sidon. Most roads and bridges to south Lebanon were hit by Israel during the conflict.

''I'm going to make sure my house is okay,'' Adel Abbas, from a village near Tyre, told Reuters.

''If Israel sticks to its word and continues to stick to the ceasefire, I'll take my family back home later today.'' Bulldozers scrambled to fill pit holes to create a make-shift dirt road on which cars could drive through and make their way home.

But the Israeli army said it was keeping its ban on unauthorised traffic in south Lebanon to prevent movement of Hizbollah gunmen. An Israeli spokesman said anyone found on the road risked attack by Israeli forces.

More than 1,100 people in Lebanon and 156 Israelis were killed during the conflict sparked by a July 12 cross-border raid by Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers.

Security sources said several people who had ventured out in bombed villages were hurt by munitions that had not exploded. Local television stations urged people to stay away from any unidentified objects.

The mood among the convoys heading south was joyful. Some said they were going to check on their properties and then go back to the safety of the north while others said they were returning for good.

Many cars were hooting their horns, their occupants giving the V for victory sign.

THANKS ''Since day one the resistance (Hizbollah) told us that it will get us back our homes, and now it has delivered on its promise,'' one woman said.

''Thank you Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,'' she added in reference to the chief of the Shi'ite Muslim organisation.

One road, 20 km (13 miles) east of Tyre, was full of 7-8 metre pit holes created by the Israeli bombardment, making it impossible for cars to continue.

''Thank God the aggression has stopped,'' said Ali Balhas, who was walking to his village near the town of Qana.

''This has revealed the fake democracy of Israel and the United States because they destroyed houses on top of civilians' heads. But despite all this destruction, we still support the resistance (Hizbollah).'' Witnesses said the mood in the area near Qana, where dozens of civilians, most of them children, were killed in a July 30 air strike that provoked international condemnation, was one of tense caution.

Houses along the route from Tyre to the village of Yater were in ruins. Civilians were scared of unexploded bombs on the streets and reluctant to enter the area just yet, they said.

REUTERS MQA KN1527