Displaced residents return to devastated Beirut suburbs after truce

People displaced by weeks of Israeli bombing on Beirut suburbs returned to their devastated neighbourhood.

The once-densely populated southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital were largely emptied as daily bombardments targeted the area during Israel's war on Lebanon.

As a ceasefire took hold, thousands of people flocked back to the neighbourhoods,

Some broke down in tears at the sight of their ruined homes and businesses while others waited for excavators to clear rubble blocking access, AFP journalists reported.

The war intensified in September when Israel expanded the focus of its military aggressions from Gaza to Lebanon.

While Israel carried out strikes around Lebanon, the most intense raids in the war were on Beirut's southern suburbs, much of which were left in ruins.

It was in the southern suburbs that Hezbollah's longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a massive strike on September 27.

'Heroic suburbs'

"We headed back home at 0200 GMT just as the ceasefire came into place," resident Fatima told AFP, giving only her first name.

"I was looking for the place where we lost our souls," Diala told AFP, referring to the site of a deadly strike.

"I headed straight there and didn't look at anything else."

The conflict that began in October 2023 killed more than 3,800 people in Lebanon, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.

Throughout the war, the Israeli military forced evacuations for the southern suburbs.