Southern Lebanon residents look to Gaza with angst

QANA, Lebanon (AFP) - Akil Sayegh will not stick around this time. Like many of his fellow residents in this southern Lebanese town pummeled during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, he stands ready to flee at the first sign of a renewed conflict.

"We will leave the country in the event of war because this time there will be no place for us to hide if Israel strikes," he said, the devastating 2006 war that left some 1,200 mostly Lebanese civilians dead still fresh in his mind.

Qana grabbed headlines at the time after an Israeli raid left nearly 30 people dead, most of them women and children. The village 10 years earlier had also been the scene of Israeli strikes which killed 105 civilians who had sought shelter in a UN base during the Jewish state's "Grapes of Wrath" offensive on Lebanon.

A father of four, Sayegh has already packed a tent in the trunk of his car, purchased extra diapers for his three-month-old and stocked up on essential items.

"I will head straight to the southern coastal town of Tyre at the first sign of trouble and leave by boat," he said as he huddled around a television set with fellow villagers at a local cafe to watch the latest developments in Gaza.

He recalled the wave of panic that spread through the village at the weekend when two Israeli jets overflew the region.

"Suddenly you had everyone in the village running for cover," he said.

Imad Chebli, 32, said locals were living in fear with everyone glued to their television sets since the Israeli offensive on Gaza began on December 27 in a bid to halt rocket attacks by Hamas fighters.

Still, like dozens of residents interviewed this week in several southern Lebanese villages, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, Chebli and Sayegh believe that the Shiite group will come out victorious in the event of a new conflict.

Many say under cover of anonymity that Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria and is considered a terrorist organization by Washington, has mobilized its troops and readied its weapons arsenal since the Gaza offensive began.

However the Lebanese government, in which Hezbollah is represented, has played down the possibility that the conflict could spill over with another front opening up in southern Lebanon.

"We have not received from Hezbollah any sign that they will risk dragging Lebanon into this conflict," Information Minister Tarek Mitri said Monday.

And residents in southern Lebanon who are still recovering from the 2006 war say they are all but ready to suffer through another conflict despite their adherence to Hezbollah.

In the village of Haris, Zeinab Jawad, 15, said his father had rushed to stock up on gasoline after Hezbollah chief declared that his party was ready to respond to any aggression.

In Ayta Eshaab, a border village, houses still bear the scars of the fierce battles that took place there during the 2006 war.

"The Jews will not dare return here," said confidently Jamal Srour, 62, sitting in his newly rebuilt house.

His wife approves adding: "This time we will wipe them out inchallah (God willing)."

Further north in the village of Al Abassiyeh, Mahmoud Chehab, who owns a small shop facing a UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) post warns that in the event the situation in Gaza escalates "we must open another front".

But not everyone shares his opinion.

"Our homes are still destroyed," said Siham Al Saadi, a mother of six who lives in the village of Shebaa. "We suffered too much and lost our loved ones.

"We won't be able to survive another war."