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Stumbling on debris, two-year-old Lyn Bolhos negotiates iron bars, sticking from the remnants of a wall, before going into an underground shelter beneath the rubble of what was once her family home.
The child's house in the tiny southern village of Siddiqin was one of tens of thousands of homes destroyed by bombardments in Lebanon during the war between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah in July-August 2006.
Although villages and towns hit by Israeli missiles and shells appear like bustling construction sites, one year and four months later thousands of families remain displaced.
Even those who have received first down payments as compensation have yet to live in their damaged homes, as the magnitude of the destruction has meant a massive and expensive rebuilding process.
"Rebuilding is estimated to cost about 2.8 billion dollars (1.9 billion euros), including 1.7 billion dollars for the housing units," a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Lebanese government secured pledges from international donors - mainly oil-rich Arab Gulf states - for several billion dollars for the post-war reconstruction and for efforts to revive the country's battered economy.
But much of the aid has been slow in coming amid fears of instability or even conflict after Lebanon sank into an acute political crisis recalling the bitterness and divisions of the 1975-1990 civil war.
"The state has so far disbursed 678 billion pounds (452 million dollars) to rehabilitate 97,586 housing units in the south, Beirut's southern suburbs and other areas of Lebanon hit during the war," the government official said.
"It has also granted assistance amounting to 194 billion pounds (129.3 million dollars) for the wounded and the families of the martyrs," he said.
"Rehabilitation of the infrastructure - including bridges, roads, electricity, telephone, water and schools - is nearly completed," he said. And apart from the foreign aid and the government funding, Hezbollah has granted families that lost property about 10,000 dollars each, in an apparent bid to maintain its power base.
Lyn's mother, Tima Bustani Bolhos, watches helmeted workers rebuilding several houses around what was her home before it was pulverised by Israeli bombs. "We have received the first down payment of 30 million pounds (20,000 dollars) from the government and we are now waiting for our turn to rebuild because all the builders are busy," she said.
"Now the whole family lives in two rooms in the damp underground floor which we used to use as a storage place," she said. Her neighbour Khadijeh Bolhos, no relation, also complains.
"We had a nice house, now we are nine people sleeping in small rooms, behind a car wash on the ground floor," she said. "Sewage water seeps into the rooms. The smell is unbearable, I cannot take it anymore," she cries.
Ali Bolhos, head of Siddiqin municipality, said: "We have 350 destroyed housing units that left 2,500 residents homeless, we have 90 partly-destroyed housing units, 647 damaged housing units and 200 damaged shops.
"The whole village is a construction site, so we have a shortage of contractors and builders," he added. "There are also people who do not want to risk their money. They are afraid of internal unrest due to the political crisis and they are always scared that Israel would attack Lebanon again," he said.
"An additional problem is that some people are afraid that the money granted to them would not be enough anymore, as the price of building materials have risen sharply over the last few months," he said.
Bolhos said aid for reconstruction was slow to arrive as "Syria first offered to rebuild 150 housing units, but the residents did not want a donor who would not build all the destroyed units... It was only two months ago that we were informed that Oman was willing to rebuild our village."
In the coastal village of Burj Shemali, municipality president Mustapha Shaitly constantly receives angry residents. "Yemen had offered to rebuild the town, but we are not sure this would materialise. We are very thankful, and we don't want to force anybody to help, but we want to know if they still want to do so," he said.
"I am under tremendous pressure from the residents and I need a solution. If Yemen cannot, then the government has to help us find an alternative," he said.
Under a huge orange cement mixer, Ameen Hawila has found a solution for his family: He is building - himself - a tiny prefabricated room within the factory's premises for him, his wife and their five children.
"It is only 32 square meters, it is not a suitable place for a family, or for children, but I have no other choice," said the man whose sister and her three children were killed during Israel's shelling of the village last year.
"I have lost everything, and I am desperate, I had to find a solution: My seven-year-old son Karim only holds on to one thing: the key to our home that the Israelis have destroyed," he said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007

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