Developments in the Mideast

IN SOUTHERN ISRAEL: Israeli troops take a break at the Gaza border. Many Israelis worry that Hamas might use the cease-fire to continue stockpiling weapons.  (Oded Balilty / AP)

SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE: Youths, including one carrying a Palestinian Authority flag, run on a hillside in the northern Gaza Strip after Israeli troops had pulled out.  (Hatem Moussa / AP)

A Hezbollah flag stands among rubble in the town of Dahieh, a suburb of Southern Beirut.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

Residents in the town of Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut, inspect the damage from Israeli rockets.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

A Lebanese woman carries some belongings out of her damaged home in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

Mustafa Jaloul, 4, holds a poster of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as he looks at a crater made by an Israeli missile in Dahieh.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

Zaynab Abdalah is escorted through rubble by her nephew Ali to see her damaged apartment in Dahieh.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

A photograph stands out amid the rubble in the Lebanese town of Dahieh.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

Lebanese women survey the damage in Dahieh.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

Khadija Shifab, 80, surveys at the damage in Dahieh.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

Marwa Dakak stands in what remains of her bedroom in the town of Dahieh.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

A Hezbollah guard patrols in the suburb of Dahieh.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

A girl is framed by a hole in a wall caused by an Israeli bomb in the town of Dahieh, a suburb of Beirut.  (Wally Skalij / LAT)

Martyr posters are handed out for the upcoming funeral of a Hezbollah fighter, Nasser Abed Al Ghani, 37, who died in the conflict.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

In the town of Qana, where more than 50 people were killed in heavy bombing, women watch as a burial ground is prepared for those who died. Hezbollah flags go up around the area of the planned funeral.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Nabil Qawook, the leader of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, visits the site of an apartment complex hit by Israeli bombs last week.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Ali Tiba, 11, holds Hezbollah flags to be placed around the town of Qana in preparation for the burial of more than 50 people who died in the fighting. A mosque was heavily damaged, as were many of the homes in Qana.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Family members try to console the mother of Israeli Army reservist David Amar at his funeral in Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday. Amar was killed Sunday, just before the cease-fire agreement went into effect, in fighting in southern Lebanon.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Family members gather around the mother of Israeli Army reservist David Amar at his funeral in Kiryat Shmona.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Israeli soldiers carry the flag-draped coffin of Army reservist David Amar at his funeral in Kiryat Shmona.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

A family member of Israeli Army reservist David Amar collapses at the grave during Amar’s funeral in Kiryat Shmona.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Shlomo and Miki Goldwasser at their home in Nahariya. Their son Udi was one of two Israeli reserve soldiers captured by Hezbollah on July 12. Shlomo Goldwasser describes the abduction as the “trigger” of the conflict with Hezbollah.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Residents of the Beirut suburb of Dahieh and Chariah are loaded into buses bound for Tripoli in North Lebanon hours after the IDF dropped leaflets warning them to evacuate their neighborhoods.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

California Congressman Darrell Issa watches as a refugee woman screams “kill Bush” in arabic as she holds aloft her baby that she delivered three days ago at a Catholic Relief Services shelter in the Aschrafieh area of Beirut.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Evacuations from the Beirut suburbs of Dahieh and Chariah load buses bound for Tripoli in North Lebanon.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Residents evacuate the Beirut suburbs of Dahieh and Chariah.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Israeli army medics evacuate a wounded soldier to a waiting helicopter from at a make-shift field hospital near Kiryat Shmona.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Israeli army medics treat a wounded soldier and prepare him for evacuation by helicopter. Israeli forces sustained heavy casualties today and yesterday since the escalation of the conflict.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers, part of the forces massed on the Lebanese border in Metula, prepared to move out as part of the expanded ground operation authorized by the Israeli security cabinet yesterday.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Janet Hansen, 55, feeds some of the over 200 dogs she cares for at the Habasha Kennel on the outskirts of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel. Janet has been running the shelter for 12 years without break despite numerous conflicts that have threatened the region.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Israeli soldiers carry a wounded comrade off an armored personnel carrier to a waiting ambulance after crossing the border from Lebanon into northern Israel.  (Jacob Silberberg / AP)

Mourners carry some of the flag-draped bodies of Lebanese citizens, killed when an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building.  (Hussein Malla / AP)

Israeli soldiers hold their weapons after returning to the Israeli side of the border from a 48-hour mission inside southern Lebonon.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

An Israeli infantry soldier kneels by the roadside in southern Lebonon.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Israeli soldiers brandish their weapons after returning to the Israeli side of the border from a 48-hour mission.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Israeli soldiers fire artillery into southern Lebonon from a position in northern Israel.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

An Israeli soldier waits to reload another round into a mobile artillery unit on the Lebanese border Tuesday. Israel maintained pressure on Hezbollah positions with artillery and airstrikes in support of its ground forces.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Israeli soldiers cover their ears as a round is fired into southern Lebanon from a position near the Lebanese border.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Residents of Kiryat Shmona rush to board a bus to Netanya on the Mediterranean coast for five days of recuperation.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Residents of Kiryat Shmona were evacuated from the northern Israeli town on the Lebanese border to Netanya on the Mediterranean coast for five days of recuperation.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Kiryat Shmona has sustained the heaviest bombardment from Hezbollah rockets since the conflict started one month ago. The Israeli government offered the respite to residents who were previously unable to leave. The government has authorized the evacuation of fifteen thousand residents of northern Israel.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Hady Al Aschar joins a group of Beirut artists who laid out more than 400 cinderblock headstones with candles downtown to commemorate the victims of hostilities with Israel.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

A man stands by the door of his home in Tyre. Most residents remained close to their homes on Tuesday after Israeli planes dropped leaflets telling residents not to drive or they would be considered a target.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Jaffer Samar watches as Israeli jets circle over Tyre.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Naemi, age 70, comforts her neighbor on a day when residents of Tyre were instructed by Israeli leaflets not to move around the city. Bombing continued in Tyre on Tuesday. “Where are we going to go?” asked Naemi.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

A man fishes for his dinner in Tyre as Mohammed Dayah, age 10, stands nearby. Tyre is normally an active fishing village, but no one has been going out by boat since the war began.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Nazzi Ali Mutkak, who locals say ran a coffee stand, was killed in a direct hit on one of the main streets of Tyre, Lebanon. Civil defense arrived to take him to the hospital, but he died on the way. Two small coffee cups fell by his side. Israelis killed at least three people in Tyre on Sunday, in several direct attacks.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Civil Defense personnel work to extract the body of a man from a van that was hit by an Israeli shell on the main road just north of Tyre, Lebanon. The van he was driving was carrying bread, which locals say he was taking to his family.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

A Lebanese soldier screams as he is rolled into the operating room at Najem Hospital after an air strike on an army post just south of Tyre. One soldier was killed, one wounded, and several were unaccounted for.  (Carolyn Cole / LAT)

An Israeli soldier’s boot remains smoking at the scene minutes after a Hezbollah rocket attack in Kefar Gil’adi which killed 12 people, most of them Israeli army reservists. It was the deadliest single attack of the conflict thus far.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

A stretcher is covered with blood at the scene of a Hezbollah rocket attack in Kefar Gil’adi.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Israeli soldiers run for cover as sirens warn of another impending attack at the scene of a Hezbollah rocket attack in Kefar Gil’adi.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Residents try to extinguish the fire at the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack in the northern Israel coastal town of Haifa.  (Baz Ratner / AP)

Police and army officers inspect the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack in the northern Israel coastal town of Haifa.  (Oded Balilty / AP)

An Israeli Arab woman is rescued from the rubble at the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack in the northern Israel coastal town of Haifa. Hezbollah rockets crashed into Haifa Sunday, killing three people and injuring dozens more in a heavy barrage on Israel’s third largest city. Earlier in the day 12 Israelis were killed in another attack in northern Israel.  (Baz Ratner / AP)

An Israeli soldier holds a Hezbollah flag seized during a battle at a mobile artillery position located along the Israeli-Lebanese border.  (Yoav Lemmer / AFP/Getty Images)

Israeli soldiers fire mortar along the Israel-Lebanon border.  (Hirvoje Polan / AFP/Getty Images)

Israeli reserve soldiers leaving Lebanese territory approach the Israeli border village of Metula.  (Atef Safadp / EPA)

Israeli soldiers pray along a highway in northern Israel after crossing from Lebanon.  (David Guttenfelder / AP)

PROTEST: Hundreds gathered in downtown Beirut today to demonstrate against the visit of US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Mourners carry the bodies of three men, Shnati Shnati, Amir Naim, and Muhamed Faor, who were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack near Ma’alot yesterday at a funeral held in the northern Israeli Arab town of Tarshikha.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

The body is carried to the grave at a funeral for Albert Ben-Abu who was killed yesterday in a Hezbollah rocket attack in the Israeli town of Akko.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

GRIEF: Linda Zribi lost her husband, Shimon, and daughter Mazal in a Hezbollah rocket attack in Acre, Israel.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

IN MOURNING: Hagit Ben-Abu nearly collapses at the grave of her husband, Albert, who was killed in a rocket attack in Acre. The Moroccan-born Jew is survived by five children. Five residents of Acre died Thursday after they left shelters, thinking the worst was over.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Female relatives and mourners look on at the funeral for Shimon Zribi, 45 and his daughter Mazal Zribi, 14, who were killed yesterday in a Hezbollah rocket attack.  (Damon Winter / LAT)

Surprised shopowners clean up broken glass after an Isreali air strike hit a nearby bridge in the mostly Christian North Lebanon town of Ghazir.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Lebanese military search and rescue dog “Valdo” pads across the rubble of a bridge destroyed by an Israeli air strike.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

A license plate blown off the bumber of a minvan sits a few yards away from where it bore the brunt of an Israeli air strike.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Municipal engineers assess the damage to telephone and electric lines crossing a bridge damaged by an Israeli air strike in the North Lebanon town of Ghazir.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

NORTH LEBANON: Rescue workers in Fadir search the site of a collapsed highway overpass. Israel targeted the Christian area saying it was trying to halt arms supplies to Hezbollah. “Why here?” asked one resident. “This is not Hezbollah. This is 100% Christian.”  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Solange Bassil weeps hysterically as she learns of the death of her brother-in-law, Jossef Bassil, who was crushed while jogging under a bridge in the North Lebanon town of Fadir.  (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Kiryat Shmona was blanketed by smoke from several fires after the latest barrage of Hezbollah rockets in this northern Israeli town. Here, cars destroyed in rocket attacks are piled up in an empty lot.  (Damon Winter / LAT)