Hezbollah Regains Strength in Lebanon

Hezbollah supporters fix the party's flag on top of their rocket models in Bourj Qalawi near the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon in this July 10, 2007, file photo. When 30,000 U.N. troops and Lebanese army soldiers were deployed across southern Lebanon at the end of last year's Israel-Hezbollah war, Hezbollah's presence shrank in the villages and hills facing the Israeli border and its influence seemed likely to diminish as well. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari, File) (Mohammed Zaatari - AP)

Dakroub's cousin, Hassan Ahmed, 23 _ whose job is helping organize Hezbollah rallies _ survived.

"I'm with the resistance," he announced proudly. "I was in the same bomb shelter. It was the highest death toll of fighters in one attack."

He said none of the young Hezbollah men in Srifa fought last year because Israel only attacked with bombs and artillery, never sending ground forces into his town.

"I was here, but not as a fighter," Ahmed said, speaking with a tinge of regret.

In Marwaheen, a Sunni Muslim village along the border, a huge banner with the message "Death to Israel" covers the front of a two-story house belonging to the Abbas family.

Twenty-three from the village were killed by an Israeli missile as they tried to flee in a pickup truck on July 15 after the Israelis warned villagers through loudspeakers to evacuate or face shelling.

Marwaheen, one of six Sunni villages along the border, sits on a mountain ridge, divided from Israel by a green valley. A military post on a nearby hill signals who is in charge of this embattled region. It was an Israeli position during Israel's occupation of south Lebanon, then Hezbollah held it, and today it's controlled by the Lebanese army.

Although Marwaheen is now protected by the army, some Sunni villagers still speak of Hezbollah with admiration.

"Hezbollah is a resistance movement, while Israel is the occupier and aggressor," said Hussein Ghannam, 58. Still, he said he favored a peace treaty with Israel provided it was not "tantamount to submission" but respected everyone's rights.