American Marconi Wireless News - Destruction, hope in south Beirut as Lebanese return home

"We'd been on the street going from place to place because there was no space in the shelters," said Insaf Ezzedine, 42, who had fled the area's Hay al-Sellom neighbourhood.

AFP spoke to Ezzedine and others on the sidelines of a media tour organised by Hezbollah in several areas of the southern suburbs -- a stronghold of the group, where journalists' freedom of movement was restricted.

The damage in parts of the suburbs caused by Israeli attacks since March 2 is enormous.

"The strikes were very strong and the houses were damaged and shaken up -- all the buildings are old in Hay al-Sellom," Ezzedine said, as her young daughter clutched a doll on the back of their motorbike.

"We hope the war will stop and we'll all go back to our homes and live in peace. We want to live with our kids in safety," she said.

"We're heading to my brother's home because ours was badly damaged."

On one main road, a huge pile of concrete rubble was littered with items including solar panels and water tanks. Shopfronts opposite had blown-out metal doors and shattered glass.

Families surveyed the destruction as they passed, some with belongings packed into their cars, and an occasional Hezbollah supporter flying the group's yellow flag drove by.

- 'For the kids' sake' -

Elsewhere, as blue-uniformed cleaners swept a street strewn with debris, Samia Lawand, 75, was in a car with her daughter and grandchildren.

"We came to check on the house and to get a few things and found the place was damaged... now we're leaving again," she said, sitting in the front passenger seat.

"The glass is shattered and everything is everywhere -- you can't stay there," said her daughter Mariam, 42.

On one major thoroughfare, the side of a building was blown off, exposing rooms with office furniture and even a dentist's chair.

Elsewhere, opposite a bombed-out building with a blackened facade, mangled cars could be seen near a portrait of Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem.

Close to an overpass, Hassan Hanoud, 34, said he was heading home with his children, wife and mother after fleeing to central Beirut.

"We left for the kids' sake," he said, a young child in his lap.

"The last time we went back, the doors and windows were broken," said Hanoud.

Now "the kids want to go home", he added, a young girl sitting behind him holding a plush toy.

In the Tahouitet al-Ghadir area, an AFP correspondent saw people gradually returning as shopkeepers cleared away debris or reopened stores.

Residents hugged and cried, happy to see their loved ones again.

- 'Fear and hope' -

"I came back at midnight as soon as the ceasefire began," said Mustafa, 65, who owns a garage and spent most of the war "going from tent to tent" near the Beirut seafront.

"There's no better feeling than coming back to your area and your people," he added.

Elsewhere in the southern suburbs, retired soldier Ezzedine Shahrour, 76, from south Lebanon's Kfar Hammam, was wearing a black suit and carrying bread and other groceries.

"I've been telling my children to take us home, but they say they can't because the situation is still dangerous," he said.

"There's fear and hope" after the ceasefire, said Shahrour, who has a son in the army and another in the security forces.

"We left in our pyjamas. We don't know how we got out. We don't know what's happened to the house," he said.

"We're happy (about the ceasefire), but we've paid a high price. Our homes were badly damaged. We've lost a lot... I feel like crying.

"Thank God we're still fine, but what about all the people who died under the rubble?" he asked.

O.Norris--AMWN