Lebanese border village eagerly awaits “Israeli” pullout

Source: AFP, 29-9-2006
MAROUN AL-RAS: At home, Lina and her family tread on dangerous ground. The house, partly destroyed by rockets, has two unexploded bombs still buried underneath it. "Israeli" soldiers are still controlling the entrance of the hilltop village, which was the first area to be occupied in South Lebanon at the outbreak of the month-long "Israeli" offensive that ended August 14.
In the ruins of Maroun al-Ras, the rocky village that overlooks northern "Israel", Lina and her family can hardly make ends meet. Three weeks ago, the young woman came home with her three daughters, her disabled husband and her parents-in-law to find their house bombarded and vandalized, and all of her tobacco fields nearly dried to the roots.
Under their camouflage tents, "Israeli" troops are camping on the flanks of Maroun al-Ras, not too far from where a few hundred residents are trying to forget their presence. Lina has seen tanks on the hilltops.
"They may leave this week, as they have announced, but they may well stay for longer," she says.
Lina is scared to go out of her house to fetch water from the village`s communal tank, near the mosque.
"I am afraid of being imprisoned [by the `Israelis`]." she says.
The two rockets that hit Lina`s house pierced the roof and landed in the dry well in the foundations of the building. They are still there, and Lina is awaiting the help of UN or Lebanese Army experts to dismantle them.
"The entire house is dangerous, but what can we do? This village is forgotten by all, mainly by the government which gave us nothing," she says.
Under her dark red veil, Lina grins bitter-sweetly as she picks a few tobacco leaves, salvaged from the war.
"What remained will only bring us back $200. This is very little," she says.
"Neighboring villages are receiving aid. We have not received anything. The government does not know us, as if we are not part of this country," says Mariam Alawiye, Lina`s mother-in-law.
The family lives "without water, without electricity most of the time and without even a taxi to go to the doctor" if need be, she adds. "To cook, we found a household gas bottle. But for heating, we have nothing." As the summer winds down, residents of the village are starting to feel a chill at night.
Maroun al-Ras, which has suffered continuously since the first "Israeli" invasion of Lebanon in 1978, was a frontline Hizbullah position between the 2000 "Israeli" withdrawal and the outbreak of the conflict on July 12.
Residents explain that some of the houses in the village damaged in past conflicts had never even been rebuilt.
A few houses down the road, Hassan Karnib and his wife are gazing at "Israeli" soldiers who, from time to time, appear at the top of the hill. His wife is hoping that the "Israelis" will leave soon, to allow her family to go out to the fields and plant wheat and vegetables.
But the final "Israeli" withdrawal has yet to take place, and the Jewish state keeps announcing delays for its pullout from South Lebanon, where Hizbullah fighters melted back into society without agreeing to surrender their arms.
"The combatants are here. They are the villagers," says Mohammad, a 21-year-old student who just returned home to Maroun al-Ras from Beirut. Mohammad says he did not fight in the latest conflict.
"But the next time, I will be ready. Our arms are our blood," he says.