Life Returns to Battered Israeli Town

KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel -- Life slowly returned to the battered Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona on Tuesday, as residents emerged from grimy bomb shelters and began cleaning up the wreckage caused by more than a month of Hezbollah rocket attacks.

The streets in this border town, empty for weeks, filled up with cars. Long-closed stores opened their doors. Buses shuttled through the newly reopened central bus station, many heading south with soldiers allowed home for the first time in weeks.

Kiryat Shemona was the hardest hit of Israel's cities, with more than 1,000 rockets slamming into its streets and surrounding hills. Half its population of 22,000 fled during the war.

Though the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas took effect Monday morning, many people here, fearing a last spasm of violence, did not begin venturing out until a day later.

"There is still tension in the air, but I am glad to see our soldiers back here again," said Edna Peretz, 45, who opened her kiosk at the bus station for the first time since July 13.

Merchants swept shattered glass from storefonts; the center of town was relatively busy as people visited banks, restaurants and stores.

"We're trying to get back to normal. It's strange to adjust to the quiet after hearing booms for a month," said Avi Tal, who welcomed regulars back to his coffee shop on Tuesday.

With the fighting over, at least for now, Israel began thinning out its troops in southern Lebanon.

An Associated Press photographer witnessed about 500 Israeli soldiers on foot cross back into Israel near the Israeli border town of Malkiya. Some of them smiled broadly. Others wept.

One unit marched carrying a billowing Israeli flag. Two soldiers carried a wounded comrade. Several tanks headed back over the border, including one that had been damaged and was being towed behind a military bulldozer.

The army plans to withdraw a large contingent of its troops from Lebanon on Wednesday and hand over the territory to the Lebanese army under the auspices of the commander of a U.N. force there, according to senior Israeli military officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the pullback.

Under the U.N. cease-fire deal, Israeli troops are due to be replaced by 15,000 Lebanese soldiers supported by up to 15,000 troops under the blue flag of the United Nations.