Backed by an M113 armored personnel carrier, Lebanese soldiers wearing flak vests and carrying M16 automatic rifles manned a checkpoint at the little crossroads marking the entrance to Al Ghandouriyeh.
On a decorative archway nearby, the Lebanese flag with its distinctive green cedar flapped proudly, proclaiming restored national authority. Just above it on the pole, however, another flag flew: the yellow and green banner of Hezbollah, with an AK-47 assault rifle depicted atop the word "God." The arrangement seemed to illustrate popular sentiment in this heavily damaged village in southern Lebanon.
Heeding the U.N. cease-fire resolution that stopped the 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah 2 1/2 weeks ago, the Lebanese army has deployed across the rocky hillsides and stone villages between the Litani River and the Israeli border. But to all appearances, the deployment has not displaced Hezbollah, the militant Islamic movement that Israel and the United States say must be destroyed as an armed force if peace is to return to this tortured land.
In Al Ghandouriyeh and a number of other villages seen during a drive through the border region, Hezbollah flags flew high and wide, often alongside Lebanese flags. Hezbollah members staffed reconstruction offices, held town council meetings and stood at their own checkpoints in what seemed to be cordial coexistence with the recently arrived army troops.
No weapons were visible except those carried by the soldiers. But many of the young Hezbollah supporters were of fighting age and seemed ready for another call-up if the need arose. In the agreement that led to the army's deployment, Hezbollah pledged that its fighters would put away their weapons. But the Lebanese government promised Hezbollah in return that its soldiers would not try to find out where the arms were stored.
The deal seemed to be working Thursday in Al Ghandouriyeh, which lies about 20 miles inland from Tyre and six miles northwest of the Israeli border. Heavy fighting raged here in the final days of the war as Israeli troops who had been helicoptered in encountered unexpectedly stiff resistance from Hezbollah defenders. The men of Al Ghandouriyeh openly displayed pride in what they had accomplished on the battlefield and seemed to have nothing to fear from the army troops lounging nearby.
"Do you think the Israelis are afraid of us now?" asked a middle-aged resident. "When they came, they thought they were heading for just more Arabs. But they found out. We are poor around here, but now we are strong."
Before the war, Hezbollah members were notorious for secrecy, hiding their weapons underground and concealing their association with the organization from even their closest friends and relatives. But since the Hezbollah militia held its own against the vaunted Israeli army for more than a month, membership has become a point of pride, to be flaunted with fatigues or a yellow-and-green flag.
Ali Kandouh, an emigrant to Kuwait who returned to Al Ghandouriyeh to bury a brother killed in the fighting, said he and the rest of the village welcome the army's deployment, which amounts to about 50 soldiers and several armored vehicles headquartered in the heavily damaged local schoolhouse. Hezbollah's emergence was largely due in the first place to the government's absence over the last three decades, he said.
"I'm glad the army is here," he said, drinking coffee as a group of villagers sat nearby under Hezbollah banners. "It's good. Now I can sleep at night. Before they came, the Israelis could come in the night and take someone away. But now maybe the soldiers will protect us."
Hassan Deeb, a 17-year-old in fatigues and a T-shirt, also applauded the army's arrival, saying it was the duty of the government to protect the southern border villages. "The trouble with the army," he said, smiling, "is that they came only after the fighting stopped.
"They had to have a decision by the government to come," he added. "All the while the war was on, there was no decision. And now that it's over, they get their decision and they come."
The Lebanese government has pledged to send 15,000 soldiers to the area and to reinstate government authority after two decades during which many of the tasks of local administration -- and military preparations -- were left to Hezbollah. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, which has patrolled the border for 28 years, estimated that three battalions amounting to about 5,000 soldiers have arrived so far.
Jeeps with camouflage netting were seen Thursday purring down the region's narrow roads, pockmarked by four weeks of Israeli pummeling. Schools, factories and bombed-out homes have been requisitioned as temporary quarters for the thinly equipped troops. Heavy trucks snorted up and down the hills, bringing in supplies from Beirut.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Wednesday he will send 8,000 more soldiers to reinforce the border with Syria. The announcement appeared designed to meet another Israeli demand -- preventing Hezbollah from replenishing its weapons stores with Iranian-supplied arms sent through Syria.
The extent of army deployment here has been a contentious issue between Israel and Lebanon. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has made it clear he will lift the seven-week-old air and sea blockade of Lebanon only after all 15,000 Lebanese troops are deployed and are joined by a 15,000-member reinforced UNIFIL as outlined in the cease-fire resolution.
The current UNIFIL strength stands at 2,000. About 900 Italian troops sailed out Tuesday on their way to southern Lebanon as the first major UNIFIL reinforcement, a down payment on a pledge of 2,500 Italian troops on the ground and hundreds more for logistics. They were expected to arrive in Tyre on Friday, according to a UNIFIL spokesman, Milos Strugar.
France has promised 2,000 troops as well, with the first contingent to arrive in the middle of September. A 200-man French engineering unit has been in Lebanon for the past two weeks preparing the way.
Several other European nations have promised to send smaller contingents. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he is eager to get Muslim troops into the UNIFIL mix as well, noting that Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia have volunteered to dispatch substantial numbers of soldiers. Israel has objected to the presence of those countries in the force, however, because they do not have relations with the Jewish state.
Turkey, which maintains active economic and diplomatic relations with Israel, has decided in principle to volunteer some troops. The decision remains sensitive, however, because of the long Ottoman role in Lebanon and, internally, because of objections from Lebanon's Armenian community over the Turkish slaughter of Armenians in 1915.
