Sawt Falasteen - In Lebanon's Tyre returning residents find no water, little power

Near the still-smoking ruins of a building, a family laden with their suitcases makes its way up a darkened staircase to discover their flat with all its windows and doors blown out.

Only the living room remains intact.

"I wasn't expecting such damage. We saw the pictures, but the reality is harder," said Dunia Najdeh, 33.

As she struggled to protect her children from the shards of glass interspersed between their books and toys, her father-in-law Sleiman Najdeh looked on with despair at the devastation wrought upon the ancient city.

"There's no more water or electricity, even the private generators don't work any more, their cables are severed," said the 60-year-old.

"Tyre and Lebanon don't deserve what happened... but God will compensate us, and Tyre will be even better than it was before," he said.

Since late September, Israel has launched successive devastating strikes on the southern city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Entire neighbourhoods have been ravaged and with them hundreds of homes and vital infrastructure in the city that was home to 120,000 people before they fled the intense bombardment.

- 'No home spared' -

The main thoroughfare running through the city is now busy with bulldozers removing the rubble of destroyed buildings.

The city's mayor, Hassan Dbouk, told AFP that "more than 50 buildings of three to 12 storeys have been completely destroyed by Israeli strikes", while dozens of others have been partially damaged.

"We can say that not a single home has been spared," he said.

Despite the long queues of motorists flooding back to the city, all shops and restaurants remained closed on Thursday, the second day of the ceasefire.

"The residents have begun returning to inspect their homes during the day, but they leave at night because there's no more water in the whole city, and no electricity in the neighbourhoods hardest hit by the Israeli strikes," Dbouk said.

On November 18, an Israeli strike targeted the Tyre water company, destroying a building and killing two workers.

The strike cut off water to 30,000 registered customers, its chairman Walid Barakat said.

The strike also destroyed the pumps and pipe network, AFP journalists witnessed on a press tour of the city organised by Hezbollah.

- 'No rockets' -

"There were no rockets or launchers here. This is vital public infrastructure that was targeted by Israeli aggression," Barakat said.

Reconstruction of the city is expected to take between three and six months, he said, adding that temporary solutions were being found to provide water to returning residents.

Heavy strikes had rained down on southern Lebanon, stopping only an hour before the ceasefire went into effect before dawn on Wednesday.

That final raid targeted the Tyre neighbourhood where Syrian tailor Anas Mdallali has lived for 10 years.

"I wept with rage," the 40-year-old said, gazing intently at the mounds of rubble blocking the entrance to his building.

"Since yesterday, I have been taking sedatives for the shock."

At the harbour in the old town, the fishing boats have remained at their moorings since early October.

Madhi Istanbuli, 37, said he and his fellow fisherman had not put out to sea since the Israeli military warned them not to.

"We are observing the situation and waiting," the father-of-four said.

"Sometimes, when I look out to sea and I hear the waves crash, I think it's more air strikes... We are still in shock."

R.Shaban--SF-PST