BEIRUT: They don’t wear uniforms or identity badges, but the bearded men patrolling Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold leave no doubt about who is in charge.

Israeli warplanes have launched near daily air strikes on Haret Hreik in Beirut’s southern suburbs, turning a Hezbollah compound to rubble and destroying apartment blocks.

But they have not dislodged the men in plainclothes, some armed, who stop cars trying to enter the area, questioning visitors and sometimes telling them to leave.

Most residents have fled Haret Hreik since Israel began its bombardment of Lebanon on July 12. The war has killed 365 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 37 Israelis.

The defiant few who have remained in the southern suburb thank Hezbollah activists for bringing supplies. “Our boys are guarding us, providing food,” said an elderly woman walking the near deserted streets strewn with rubble.

“I’m not afraid at all, I’m going to stay until God says otherwise. I’ve been here for 46 years. I’m only scared of the one Who created me,” said the 76-year-old, who would not give her name.

The silence was broken by the raucous sound of Hezbollah anthems blasting from speakers mounted on the back of a truck — apparently a show of defiance for a UN official visiting to inspect the destruction.

A Hezbollah guard dressed in black and armed with an assault rifle removed a road block to allow through the convoy carrying the official, UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland.

Lebanese security forces escorting him were the only sign of the government in the area. Leaders of Iran, a main backer of Hezbollah, peer at pedestrians from enormous portraits in the street.

The group organises almost daily tours of the devastated district for reporters, photographers and cameramen.

“I say God protect the men of the resistance, because it’s thanks to them that we are living, thanks to the boys that nothing has been cut off. God destroy America and Israel,” said a woman who would identify herself only as Zeinab.

“We are here and, God willing, here we will stay. Sayyed Hassan needs only his little finger to rule the entire country,” she said, referring to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

But the majority of residents have left Haret Hreik, joining the ranks of some half a million forced from their homes by the war. Some make quick trips home, darting in and out of the area to collect possessions.

Clutching some of his wife’s clothes, one passer-by said it was all he had been able to salvage from his apartment block.

“It was seven storeys high ... totally destroyed,” he said.—Reuters