Hezbollah handed out bundles of cash on Friday to people whose homes were wrecked by Israeli bombing.
BEIRUT: Hezbollah handed out bundles of cash on Friday to people whose homes were wrecked by Israeli bombing, consolidating the Iranian-backed group’s support among Lebanon’s Shiites and embarrassing the Beirut government.
“This is a very, very reasonable amount. It is not small,” said Ayman Jaber, 27, holding a wad he had just picked up from Hezbollah of $12,000 in banknotes wrapped in tissue. Israeli and US officials have voiced concern that Hezbollah will entrench its popularity by moving fast — with Iranian money — to help people whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the 34-day conflict with Israel.
Hezbollah has not said where the funds are coming from to compensate people for an estimated 15,000 destroyed homes. The scheme appears likely to cost at least $150 million.
The Lebanese government has yet to launch anything similar. Its reconstruction chief said Israeli bombardment had inflicted a “disastrous” $3.6 billion worth of physical damage on Lebanon from which it could take years to recover.
Al-Fadl Shalaq, head of the Council for Development and Reconstruction, said the devastation from the five-week conflict exceeded that caused by Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
“I have witnessed all the wars in Lebanon but I have never seen a war this fierce and I do not see a response to clearing the rubble of war to match it,” he said.
Trying to bolster a five-day-old truce, Lebanese troops moved deeper into the south and about 600 deployed in Shebaa village, near the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms enclave, a key source of tension between Israel and Hezbollah before the war.
The Lebanese army has had no presence in the area since an Arab decision allowed Palestinian guerrillas to operate there nearly 40 years ago.
On Thursday, the Lebanese army began deploying a force that will eventually number 15,000 soldiers south of the Litani River, about 20 km from the border with Israel. The same day France dealt a blow to hopes of building a strong UN force to back the army as Israeli troops withdraw.
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