A child from a displaced family from South Lebanon, all smiles, near the ruins of Aïta el-Chaab. Photo Mohammad Yassine
Here are other testimonies collected in South Lebanon by our journalists Emmanuel Haddad and Mohammad Yassine:
‘We’ve been waiting for this day for 14 months. Of course, the village was destroyed, many of our men were martyred, but in the end, we returned victorious,’ said Feriel el-Zein, a resident.
Another resident, Ali, said the residents ‘arrived at 7:30 a.m.’ ‘The army blocked us and said they were waiting for orders. We waited 5 minutes and returned against their will. We’ve been waiting for this moment for over a year, we’re not going to wait any longer!’
-With Hezbollah flags in the windows, the inhabitants of Aïta el-Chaab entered their village before the army, which ended up following them on the demolished roads of this ghostly border village, reports our journalist Emmanuel Haddad. Residents drink coffee or smoke hookahs on the ruins of their old house. Others pick flowers that survived the war amid the rubble. Several unexploded mines line the roads covered in rubble. Rescuers remove the remains of fighters, but refuse to communicate their exact number.
In front of the ruins of his house, Ahmad Nassar assures: ‘They destroyed during the truce what they could not do during the war.’
Ali Reda discovers his home under the rubble, but several members of his family are still missing: ‘Five young people were martyred defending the village and we still have not found their remains, except for one, but in several pieces.
