A hot, daily meal from a Hezbollah-run soup kitchen in Noueiri, south-east Beirut, was how Zeina Khawle managed to feed her children throughout the long weeks of the Lebanese crisis. A widow, and mother of three, Zeina hosted a displaced family from southern Lebanon in her Beirut home. “There is nobody to help me and I have no money,” she said, flanked by her nine-year-old son Hassan, who on the day IRIN visited, was disappointed that lentil soup was not on the aid menu. Across Beirut and its devastated southern suburbs, a relief effort organised and financed by Hezbollah has been helping hundreds of thousands of displaced people, according to one of the Islamist party’s officials. Read more about We're not just fighters, says Hezbollah 

BEIRUT - Lebanese who had fled air strikes during the month-long conflict with Israel, are facing a new danger as they head home: unexploded bombs and shells left behind. “If any civilian touches them or tries to move them, they will explode,” Allen Kelly, liaison for United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Beirut, told IRIN. Israel’s military has stated that during its attacks on Hezbollah militias, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers, its air force hit 7,000 targets in Lebanon, and its navy carried out more than 2,500 bombardments along the Lebanese coast. Read more about Unexploded bombs bring new dangers 

BEIRUT - A mass southbound movement of displaced Lebanese continued on Tuesday as the United Nations-brokered ceasefire between Hezbollah militias and Israel’s defence forces entered its second day. “We’re leaving,” said Shams, who comes from Nabatiyeh, 80 km south of Beirut, but has spent the past month living in a Beirut park. “We know it might not be safe, but we want to know whether or not our house is still standing. And we’re tired of living like this, in such unsanitary conditions and in the open air.” Read more about Bombed southern suburbs spring to life 

BEIRUT - At first, heavy silence hang over Haret Hreik and other areas of south Beirut early on Tuesday morning as scenes of an apocalypse emerged from the thick smoke and smell of fresh gunpowder. Then one could discern signs of life - women weeping as they inspected what were once their homes and other fragments of their lives, all destroyed by heavy bombing by the Israeli army during the 34-day conflict between Israel and the armed wing of the Lebanese political party Hezbollah. Read more about South Beirut after a month of bombing 

TYRE — As the war in Lebanon continues, Palestine refugees are also feeling the burn of the attacks in this ancient city and district declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979. The camps are struggling with diminishing supplies of food, water and medicine. “We have been waiting for months now for a shipment of medicine and critical supplies, but with the onset of war, I doubt it will ever arrive now,” said Mohammed Farmawi, an official with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Read more about "People with nothing are helping people with nothing" 

Civilians make up the overwhelming majority of the victims of this conflict, which broke out following Hizbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers on 12 July. According to the Lebanese Higher Relief Council, over 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 3,600 wounded, while Israel’s Government reports that more than 40 Israeli civilians have been killed. An estimated one fourth of the entire population of Lebanon has been forced to flee their homes. Read more about Fighting between Israel and Hizbollah intensifies with UN positions hit again 

A civilian convoy of more than 150 people in 47 cars was turned back by local police when attempting to bring relief supplies from Beirut to Nabatiyeh, 80km south of the capital on Saturday. Organisers and participants of the Campaign of Resistance returned to Beirut after being advised by police that it was unsafe to travel any further than the checkpoint at Neama, about 20 km south of Beirut. “We are currently meeting and discussing our next move,” said campaign spokesperson Rasha Salti. “It is likely, though not definite, that it will be the organisation of another civilian convoy. Either way, we will be taking action very, very soon.” Read more about Police stop civilian convoy heading south 

In an effort to push the parties working on the current United Nations Security Council draft on Lebanon to come to a conclusion, Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin emerged from a meeting at the British mission Thursday evening to announce a Russian-proposed 72-hour humanitarian truce. Churkin told reporters that the draft resolution would be put in ‘blue’ — council-speak for ready to be voted on — “calling for an immediate and full cessation of hostilities of all the parties for 72 hours, calling for proper humanitarian efforts and, quite importantly, calling for extraordinary diplomatic efforts”. Read more about Russia proposes 72-hour humanitarian truce