In Beirut, the international airport reopened to commercial traffic for the
first time since July 13 when it was attacked by Israeli warplanes and gunboats.
A Middle East Airlines passenger jet touched down from Amman, Jordan, ending a
36-day Israeli blockade, and a Royal Jordanian flight followed soon after.
The Israeli military said it was coordinating the arrivals, and that the air
blockade had not been lifted. But Middle East Airlines Chairman Mohammed Hout
said the blockade was partially lifted to allow flights between Amman and
Beirut. Airport officials said full commercial traffic could resume next week.
In southern Lebanon, about 2,500 Lebanese soldiers from the 10th Brigade set
up camps within a half-mile of the Israeli border, a key step toward taking
control of the whole country for the first time since 1968 and a major demand of
the U.N. resolution that so far has halted the fighting.
The deployment marks the first time the Lebanese army has moved in force to a
region that was held by Palestinian guerrillas in the 1970s and by Hezbollah
since Israeli troops withdrew from the area in 2000.
As the Lebanese troops began spreading out along the frontier at the north
end of Israel's Galilee panhandle, a convoy of eight U.N. peacekeeping trucks
rumbled into Kfar Kila, just south of here, to take up positions that were held
by Israelis before they began withdrawing. Those posts were to be transferred to
Lebanese forces, mostly likely by early Friday.
Abu Hussein Awad, a 58-year-old Shiite, claims the distinction of being the
Lebanese civilian who lives closest to Israel. His house backs up against the
Fatima Gate where Israeli troops withdrew in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation
of south Lebanon.
"The army is good, I'm glad they're here," said Awad, who has lived here for
50 years - most of the time Israel has been in existence.
He was asked if he supported Hezbollah.
"I'm Lebanese. I don't like Hezbollah ... . I love Lebanon only, not America,
not Iran and not Syria - just Lebanon," he said, listing the key backers of the
combatants in the war.
The area of Lebanon's border with Israel was in ruins. In the towns of
Adaisse and Taibeh, south and west of Kfar Kila respectively, it was difficult
to find a building that was not blackened, pockmarked by artillery or flattened
altogether.
Wreckage was strewn through the streets, but new Hezbollah flags flapped in
the wind over piles of rubble. In Kfar Kila, young men hung giant yellow banners
above intersections. They read: "Rice, they will not see your new Mideast" and
"The Great Lebanon has defeated the murderers." Both were signed, Hezbollah.
The only traffic in the towns was young bearded men zipping around piles of
wreckage on motorcycles. They spoke quietly into two-way radios, occasionally
dismounted to kiss one another on both cheeks, then zipped away. One had a
handgun tucked into his belt. Another threw an AK-47 rifle into the back of a
pickup truck when a reporter approached.
"I am a Hezbollah fighter, and this is my town," proclaimed 35-year-old
Ahmed, who declined to give his full name because he feared retribution. His
voice echoed off the shells of vacant, gnarled buildings in Adaisse's main
square.
Ahmed pointed to one charred building after another. "That is where 18 of
them (Israeli soldiers) died, and five more there," he said, pointing to
buildings off the town square. "That over there is my business, a bookshop."
"Why did they (the Israelis) come? Why did they do this?" Ahmed screamed, his
cement block house in shambles. "Next time the Israelis come, we'll fight again
for sure." He broke open a 6-pack of mineral water he said he snatched from next
to the bodies of Israeli soldiers killed days ago here.
Among the soldiers who will be taking up positions in villages like Adaisse
and Taibeh was Cpl. Muhammed Abdul Rahim. The 42-year-old Lebanese army ranger
from Tripoli, in the far north of the country, said he felt "like a new man
today."
"It's a difficult mission, and the times now are still dangerous. I think we
have one more week of danger in this country," he said.
The arrival of Adbul Rahim and his comrades was welcomed.
"We've been waiting for 30 years for this army to come," said George Najm, a
23-year-old wedding singer from Qleia. "Today is a new beginning."
"Lebanon is a beautiful country," Najm said as he looked over the valley
toward Israel. "But it's been a pretty difficult place to live for the past
month."
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