In the southern Lebanon border villages of Bint Jbeil and Ainata, where fierce fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters took place, rescuers used excavators began searching on Wednesday for bodies under the rubble.
A woman in Ainata wrapped in black cried as she held a portrait her grandson, a Hezbollah fighter, who was killed in the fighting, as she waits for rescuers to recover his body from a destroyed home.
The smell of death filled the air and several dead bodies could be seen inside houses and between trees. In the town of Kfar Hammam, rescuers recovered four bodies, according to Lebanese state media.
Meanwhile, families and politicians visited the graves of Hezbollah fighters buried in eastern Lebanon's Baalbek region.
Families with tears in their eyes paid respects to the dead and celebratory gunshots could be heard in the background Wednesday, the first day of a ceasefire between the group and Israel.
“The resistance (Hezbollah) will stay to defend Lebanon,” Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Mokdad told reporters while visiting the graves. “We tell the enemy that the martyrs thwarted their plans for the Middle East.”
Several other Hezbollah members of parliament were present.
