After more than a year of fighting and two months of all-out war, a fragile and incomplete peace has finally come to Lebanon. Now the country is left to assess the ruins of villages, damaged towns and city streets blown apart – and a shattered worldview.
Will Christou, who reports from Lebanon for the Guardian, charts how a year of rocket-fire exchanges became a full-scale war. He describes how Hezbollah, which had almost mythic status in Lebanon, was ultimately outgunned and outmanoeuvred.
He tells Michael Safi how the invasion led to huge numbers of displaced people living on the streets, and fears of sectarian strife as civilians from mayors to civil defence workers were killed by Israeli attacks. After the ceasefire, he travels to southern villages to see how much has been destroyed, and speaks to people sifting through the rubble for the remains of those killed. Then, he discusses what comes next for Hezbollah and a shattered Lebanon.