Lebanese begin rebuilding lives shattered by war

KHIAM, Lebanon, Aug 20 (Reuters) In the only house still intact on a smashed street in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam, the Gharib family tries to restart a life torn apart by war.

Pulverised by Israeli air strikes, their neighbourhood is no more. There are no other houses, no shops and no work. They have seen no trace of the neighbours who once lived in buildings that are now dusty crags of concrete and steel.

''They were our friends. We don't know where they are, but I'm sure they'll come back. This is their home,'' said Joanna Gharib, holding her 7-year-old daughter's hand.

''We'll just have to manage somehow.'' Khiam escaped the near complete devastation visited on border towns like Ainata, Bint Jbeil, and Aitaa al-Shaab, where Hizbollah guerrillas fought fierce battles with Israeli troops.

But Deputy Mayor Mohammad Abdallah said around 800 houses -- a fifth of the city's total -- were completely destroyed and the same number badly damaged.

No building here was left unscathed, he said, in the war triggered when Hizbollah snatched two Israeli soldiers in a bloody cross-border raid on July 12.

Israel said its bombing campaign and ground attacks were the only way to stop Hizbollah firing rockets across the border.

Of Khiam's 4,000 people whose houses were destroyed, most have returned to their villages along with the hundreds of thousands others displaced by fighting which killed 1,183 in Lebanon and 157 Israelis.

Humanitarian groups expect most of the displaced to stay in a single room if their houses are not too badly damaged or, failing that, with friends and family.

''They are going to need a year to clear the rubble, to rebuild, and to start again,'' said Cassandra Nelson, senior communications officer for Mercy Corps.

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