Israeli forces began leaving parts of south Lebanon on Tuesday as a UN truce largely held for a second day and the Lebanese army prepared to move south. Tens of thousands of refugees who had fled the month-long war between Israel and Hizbollah headed home to battered villages in the south.
In northern Israel, residents also returned after weeks away from their homes to escape cross-border Hizbollah rocket fire. The Israeli army, which had poured 30,000 troops into the south to fight the Hizbollah fighters, plans to start handing over some pockets of territory to UN troops in a day or two, Israeli officials and Western diplomats said.
Israel's top general, Dan Halutz, said Israeli forces could complete a withdrawal within 7 to 10 days. In line with the UN Security Council resolution that halted the fighting, the Lebanese army will begin moving 15,000 troops south of the Litani River on Thursday, a senior political source said. The force is assembling at various army bases.
"As we speak, the army is readying the force," the source said, adding that Lebanese units would stay out of areas occupied by Israeli troops until UN peacekeepers move in. Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr has said the army will not disarm Hizbollah fighters in the south.
The army also said four Hizbollah mortar bombs landed near its troops overnight, causing no casualties. On Monday Israeli troops killed at least one Hizbollah fighter after the truce. Israel's quicker withdrawal plans reflect concern that its forces on the ground are easy targets for Hizbollah attack.
A military spokesman said Israel had begun pulling its forces out of Lebanon, but the army declined to say how many of the 30,000 troops Israel was reported to have there had left.
Israeli troops left the Christian town of Marjayoun, the nearby town of Qlaiah and the village of Ghandouriyeh, scene of ferocious battles over the weekend, security sources said.
Much of Ghandouriyeh was devastated. In one area the shattered tracks of an Israeli armoured vehicle lay near a blood-stained Israeli flak jacket. The bodies of five Hizbollah fighters were found elsewhere in the village. Lebanese rescue workers pulled bodies from the rubble of destroyed houses in several border villages, witnesses said.
The general calm has prompted a chaotic tide of refugees flowing back to southern villages, despite the risk of unexploded munitions left over from the fighting and Israeli leaflet drops warning that it was not safe to return.
"People need to be aware the dangers are very high," said Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR. She said there had been at least eight incidents involving unexploded ordnance, but had no word on casualties.
Life was also returning to towns in northern Israel. Thousands of Israelis headed back to their homes after nearly two days without rocket attacks from Lebanon.
"I am glad I left but even happier to be back," said Shimon Chen, 30 in the town of Nahariya. "The government is telling us to come back north but I'm not so quick to trust the ceasefire."
Plans for the expanded UN force are still in their early stages. Potential contributing nations will hold a second meeting on Thursday to agree on a "concept of operations".
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Israeli television more peacekeepers would be deployed "as quickly as possible". French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, whose country may lead the force, was due in Beirut on Wednesday to discuss its deployment, the reopening of Lebanon's ports and airport, and humanitarian aid, France's Foreign Ministry said.
Iran and Syria, both supporters of Hizbollah, said the group had won a victory against Israel. "This war showed that any nation that relies on God and fights for its rights will surely be victorious," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd in north-western Iran.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said US plans for the Middle East had been destroyed. His comments prompted German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to cancel a planned trip to Damascus.
In Washington, US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, who has been negotiating between Lebanon and Israel, accused the Syrian and Iranian leaders of taking advantage of the war and trying to stoke violence.