Yet it appears that with each embrace given by a grandmother to a grandchild she hadn't seen in 18 years, and with the re-paving of roads which had been blocked off to stop terrorists, a new security strip is being built up for the state of Israel. This is a human security strip, one which might very well prove to be more effective than its failed predecessor. Prior to the Lebanon War, some 150,000 people lived in areas that became the security zone. Many left before the war, when the region was controlled by Palestinians. But the mass emigration of villagers occurred after the war, picking up steam when the security zone was established.
Lebanese estimates hold that only a third of southern Lebanon's population remained in the strip.
Towns and villages that had formerly been home to thousands of families came to be populated by a few hundred individuals who lingered to watch over their property, or who hadn't found refuge in northern parts of the country. Now they are returning to rebuild their lives. These are people who endured the trauma of Palestinian control and survived the Lebanon War. Many became small-scale entrepreneurs in the North. Local pundits are calling upon Lebanon's government to allocate a large share of resources for the reconstruction of the South.