[ Cronotopo Photo Collective ]

PHOTOGRAPHERS: SUSANA VERA: Stories: Living with the scars of war

Life in southern Lebanon is full of uncertainty, unexploded cluster bombs and memories of war. The southern Lebanese live their lives with the only conviction that it won`t be long before another armed conflict breaks out somewhere within their territory. But that knowledge doesn`t break their spirits. They mourn their dead, rebuild their war damaged properties, clean their explosive contaminated farmland and wait for the thousands who have been displaced to return home. A 15-year civil war that killed over 150,000 Lebanese marks their recent past and the 2006 armed conflict with Israel that resulted in the death of a thousand people, mostly Lebanese civilians, marks their present. A year and a half after the 34-day July war there are still parts of Southern Lebanon that remain uninhabitable. The grim economic prospects of their future and the echo of more hostilities bring some to desperation, but most celebrate they are alive and force themselves to believe that another, better life is possible.

Zaynab Abed Noura visits the grave of her son Jamal Hassan Ali in the cementery of Yohmor, situated five kms from the Israeli border. Both her son and her husband Zaynab were killed by Israeli shellings in 1985 and 1978. Zaynab was evacuated during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. Upon her return she found her house bombed to the ground and her tobacco field, her livelihood, infested with landmines.
   
Ali Sharif poses with a toy rifle as his neighbours laugh at him in Dahieh, southern Beirut. Dahieh, the Beirut stronghold of the Shi'ite Islamist group Hezbollah. Ali Sharaf, who wears a t-shirt with the image of Hezbollah`s leader Hassan Nasrallah, says that he wants to kill Israeli soldiers when he grows up.
   
A year after getting shelled by Israeli aircrafts the mosque of Khiam stills shows some of the damage it endured during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. The Shiite Muslim town of Khiam, a mountain village less than a mile from Israel, was once best known for an Israeli-run prison that Hezbollah turned into a museum after the 18-year Israeli occupation of the south ended in 2000.
     
  
A girl on a bus stares at Spanish soldiers serving under the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the southern Lebanese region of Marjeyoun. UNIFIL, which was set up in 1978 to monitor the border between Israel and southern Lebanon, was considerably beefed up in the wake of the 2006 war between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas.
  
The faces of the people who died in the Israeli-run prison of Khiam welcome the visitors, as well as the yellow and green flag of the Shi'ite Islamist group Hezbollah, which has turned the prison into a museum to remember the horrors that took place within its walls while it was used as an interrogation and detention center by Israelis and their allies, the South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia. The prison was destroyed by Israeli aircraft during the heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon armed conflict.
   
Najwa Al Ahmad and her sister Jihan watch television in their living-room in Ayn Arab, southern Lebanon. Their father makes a living selling the iron he collects from the houses which got destroyed in the 2006 armed conflict. Hanging from the door is a portrait of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was killed in a car bomb attack in Beirut in 2005.
     
  
The harvesting of war scrap has become the only way to make a living for many people who lost everything in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Many Lebanese, including young children, collect copper wires, iron, lead and steel from bombed out buildings, abandoned tanks or wrecked vehicles as a source of income.
  
A young shepherd tends to his flock near the village of Halta. The Spanish ngo Accion contra el Hambre estimates that 20% of the southern Lebanese livestock was lost to the bombing and hunger during the 2006 war. Unexploded ordnance, including cluster bombs and landmines are now the biggest threat.
  
Young men dance the traditional "dabkee" at a restaurant in the outskirts of Hasbaya, just a few kilometres from Israel. Despite they live with the scars of numerous wars, most southern Lebanese show a huge hunger for life.
     
  
Ghada Mkanna plays with her 7-year-old son Majd in her home in Hasbaya. Guada, who is a French teacher and works with several humanitarian organizations in souther Lebanon decided to remain in Hasbaya with her family during the 2006 war to help displaced people find a shelter in the city`s schools.
  
A boy stands next to an army tank featuring a yellow Hezbollah flag and a life size billboard of Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini in southern Lebanon.
   
Seventeen-year-old Waelid Enaizat takes her family`s cows out of a shed riddled with bullets during the 2006 war. Waelid doesn`t go to school. Like her brothers and sisters, she tends to the family`s cattle and takes care of her ailing father, who lost one hand and three fingers as a little boy when he came upon an unexploded landmine. The Enaizat`s home was destroyed by Israeli aircraft in August 2006.
     
  
A woman strolls with her child in the town of Khiam.
   
Children sit in the rubble in downtown Khiam months after the 2006 war.
  
Sahar Alfadad, 18, gives her son Kosay a pacifier at her mother-in-law`s in Ayn Arab, southern Lebanon. Alfadad`s peasant family had to start from scratch after the war ended because they lost most of their livestock and harvest in several bombings.
     
  
Children play during recess time at Atarbia Al Haditha School in Al Meri, southern Lebanon. Two of their school-mates died after the 2006 war when they came upon unexploded landmines. Many of the school children need psychological help to cope with the after-effects of the war, but few can afford to get it.
   
Amal, Ghada and Mohammad joke around as they have lunch at a restaurant in the outskirts of Hasbaya, just a few kilometres from Israel. They meet with their families and friends there every Sunday. Despite they live with the scars of numerous wars, most southern Lebanese show a huge hunger for life.
   
Zahraa, 19, poses with the condition that her full face is not shown amidst the ruins of the mosque of Khiam, destroyed during the 2006 war. Zahraa takes first-aid classes to prepare for the next war with Israel. "I want another war with Israel so that I can become a martyr of Lebanon and go to Paradise", she says.