Thousands of Lebanese unable to return home - UN

Thousands of Lebanese are unable to return to their homes two weeks after the cease-fire took hold because they feel too insecure or the houses are destroyed, the UN refugee agency said today.

Most of about one million of Lebanese who were driven from their homes by Israeli-Hezbollah fighting were back, said Jennifer Pagonis of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland.

Most of the people unable to go home had returned to the southern part of Lebanon and had been staying with friends and relatives nearby, said UNHCR spokesman Jack Redden.

In the area of Byblos, north of Beirut, some 2,600 people were still homeless, he said, adding that there were some 3,400 in Kesrouan area and some 6,000 in Metn area, just outside Beirut.

Redden said the charity organisation Caritas estimated there were still 35,000 homeless people in Beirut.

“Some people have reported they cannot go back because the area is just littered with unexploded ordnance,” he said, noting that applied in particular to those living close to the Israeli border.