lebanon and reconstruction (jamail):
Starting from within hours of the ceasefire, about a million people who had fled southern Lebanon began to return, many to wrecked homes. One of the towns almost completely destroyed was Bint Jbail, less than 5km from the Lebanese-Israeli border.
(...) "We support the opposition to the government because we want our rights and we want justice and support in rebuilding from the war," he said. "At least the head of the government should come see what happened to his own country."
(...) Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora never visited southern Lebanon to see what happened during the war. "Instead he went on holiday to Jordan. Is it possible for a prime minister not to know or care about his own country?"
(...) "They can bomb us one day and we'll rebuild the next because we are not afraid of them," he said. "But the rebuilding is on our own, with the help of Qatar and Hezbollah and Iran, but not from our own impotent government."
(...) Amnesty International stated after the war ended that many of the attacks on Lebanon's civilian infrastructure were collective punishment, and not the "collateral damage" that Israel claimed. United Nations Development Programme spokesman Jean Fabre had estimated in August 2006 that economic losses to Lebanon from the month-long war amounted to "at least 15 billion dollars." According to the Lebanese government, more than 1,100 civilians were killed during the war. Also, 43 Israeli civilians died from rockets fired by Hezbollah.
(...) The fighting is over but tension continues to hang over the region. A Lebanese soldier at a border post who asked not to be named told IPS that Israeli warplanes have been flying into Lebanese airspace nearly every week in violation of the UN-brokered ceasefire agreement. "We see the drones (unmanned espionage aircraft) nearly every single day," the Lebanese soldier added. This IPS correspondent too observed an Israeli warplane overhead in southern Lebanon, and at least one military drone.