BEIRUT—Thousands of Lebanese refugees headed home to south Lebanon on Tuesday as a U.N. truce between Israel and Hezbollah held on into a second day and planning got under way for a beefed up U.N. force to deploy in the area.
Underlining the fragility of the "cessation of hostilities," the Israeli army said Hezbollah fired four mortar bombs overnight that landed near Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, causing no casualties or damage. The army said on Monday it had killed at least one guerrilla in shootings after the truce.
Ground clashes, Israeli air strikes and Hezbollah rocket fire ceased on Monday as the truce took effect, encouraging thousands of Lebanese refugees to return to southern villages devastated by the five-week war.
Thousands of vehicles jammed a bombed out coastal highway linking Beirut to the south of the country again from the early hours of Tuesday, as a sea of mainly Shi'ite Muslim refugees streamed back home.
Cars, vans and pickup trucks packed with families and belongings strapped to the roof advanced on makeshift diverted roads at a snail's pace. Pictures of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah were plastered on many windows.
The truce also allowed many Israelis to leave bomb shelters for the first time in a month.
French military officers headed to the United Nations to discuss the boosted U.N. peacekeeping force France is expected to lead, U.N. and French officials said.
At a meeting on Monday of some 20 potential troop contributing countries, participants said that a concept of operations would be ready by Thursday at another session of interested nations, according to diplomats at the meeting.
"We have no formal, specific commitments from troop contributors, but obviously we're continuing those discussions," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "We have one leg up in that there is already a U.N. force in south Lebanon."
Lebanese Army Moves
Lebanon's Defense Minister Elias Murr said the Lebanese army would send 15,000 troops to the north of the Litani River around the end of the week, ready to enter the southern border area.
But he said the army would not be disarming Hezbollah guerrillas, who have controlled the area for six years.
"The army is not going to the south to strip Hezbollah of weapons and do the work Israel did not," he told LBC Television.
"The resistance is cooperating to the utmost level so that as soon as the Lebanese army arrives in the south there will be no weapons but those of the army."
Murr said the Lebanese army would deploy on the border only after the U.N. force deploys there and verifies the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Lebanon.
Nasrallah said on Monday night his fighters had won a "strategic and historic victory" over Israel and that it was the wrong time publicly to discuss disarming them.
But President Bush said Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, had been defeated and accused the Islamic Republic of meddling in Lebanon and Iraq.
"In both these countries Iran is backing armed groups in the hope of stopping democracy from taking hold," Bush said.
The rush by the hundreds of thousands of refugees to head home to villages with no electricity, water and basic services, let alone many destroyed homes, had surprised the authorities.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah would immediately begin repairing homes damaged by Israeli strikes and would pay a year's rent and other costs to help the owners of about 15,000 destroyed houses.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is facing domestic pressure over his handling of the Lebanon war, told parliament Israel would pursue Hezbollah leaders "everywhere and any time".
The White House said border security would need to be tightened in Lebanon to block weapons deliveries to Hezbollah from Iran and Syria -- both of which deny arming the guerrillas.
Lebanon's Acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat said the Lebanese army would take over security at border crossing points from Tuesday to tighten the government's control.
The U.N. resolution calls for a ban on arms supplies to groups in Lebanon, but does not say how it should be enforced.
An Israeli military source said an air and sea blockade of Lebanon would remain until the arms embargo was implemented.
About 1,110 people in Lebanon and 156 Israelis have been killed. Israel, which launched the war after Hezbollah captured two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, says it killed 530 Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah puts the toll at 80.
Thousands of Israeli troops remain in southern Lebanon. Israel has said they will not withdraw fully until an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force arrives alongside Lebanese troops.
Feeds