Returning home remains dream out of reach for many displaced Lebanese

A Lebanese returnee is seen in front of a ruined building in Nabatieh, Lebanon, on Nov. 28, 2024. (Str/Xinhua)

BEIRUT, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- After over a year of conflict, 40-year-old Laila Sheet was happy to learn of the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, which took effect early Wednesday. However, it didn't take long before another cruel reality manifested itself.

Israeli machine gunfire and artillery shells are still preventing thousands of displaced Lebanese from returning home. Now Sheet's village, Kafr Kila, has become a place within sight but out of reach.

"We did not expect Israeli forces to be still stationed in our village," Sheet, who was accompanied by her family of four, told Xinhua. "We escaped an Israeli shell that fell close to our car and then returned to our shelter center," she said.

Israeli troops are seen near the northern Israeli border with Lebanon, on Nov. 28, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/JINI via Xinhua)

On Friday, Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), posted on social media platform X a map highlighting a restricted area near the Israeli border, where about 60 Lebanese villages are located, warning that anyone entering this area would be exposed to danger.

"The IDF does not intend to target you. Yet at this stage, moving south to the line (of these villages) and returning to your homes are prohibited until further notice," said Adraee.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army has set up fixed barriers at the intersections and entrances of these border villages to prevent the residents from entering to protect them, according to Lebanese military sources.

The seething tension along the border has apparently collided with the profound desire of the displaced Lebanese to embrace their home once again. At the western entrance to the village of Houla, a convoy of cars carrying returnees was forced to turn back after an Israeli tank fired several shells, slightly wounding three civilians.

Displaced people return to their home after the ceasefire in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on Nov. 27, 2024. (Str/Xinhua)

"The multiple Israeli ceasefire violations reported by local and international media indicate that the agreement is not reassuring, and we fear that this second displacement phase will last long," lamented Amer Younis, a returnee on board the convoy.

On Friday, the Ministerial Emergency Committee of Lebanon announced that most displaced people residing in shelters had left for their homes and villages following the ceasefire.

Official figures showed that 296 shelter centers were closed and the number of displaced people decreased by 76.97 percent, with 33,758 individuals remaining in other 713 centers.

The ceasefire, holding since dawn on Wednesday, brought an end to over a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. However, this latest round of confrontation, one of the most severe since 2006, has left widespread destruction in its wake.

Lebanese returnees are seen among damaged properties in Tyre, Lebanon, on Nov. 28, 2024. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Xinhua)

According to a media source in Nabatieh governorate, southern Lebanon, about 100,000 displaced individuals from border villages remain unable to return due to the severe damage.

Hashem Haidar, head of the Council for South Lebanon, told Xinhua that assessment committees have started surveying damage in towns and villages further from the border and will expand the survey area to the border once Israeli forces withdraw.

Hassib Abdul Hamid, deputy head of the municipality of Kfar Hamam in southern Lebanon, said the most significant obstacle for the returning Lebanese lies in the extensive destruction of villages and their critical infrastructure and facilities such as water and electricity networks, roads, schools, hospitals, and residential properties.

On top of that, agricultural lands, the main source of income for local residents, have been turned into areas full of mines and unexploded bombs, posing a grave danger to civilians.

Removing the rubble and repairing the infrastructure are expected to take several months, followed by the reconstruction of homes, which will depend on the availability of aid and compensation in the future, Hamid said, adding the parties that provide compensation and the cost of each housing unit remain unknown.