Ali Qashmar walked into his south Lebanon hometown on the Israeli border Tuesday to find bulldozed fields and piles of rubble where there used to be neighbourhoods brimming with life.

"We came back to breathe the air of our lands and village, and we found our homes destroyed," said Qashmar, 74, from Odaisseh.

Qashmar, his children and their families fled in October 2023, after Hezbollah initiated cross-border hostilities with Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip.

More than a year later, the town "seemed totally abandoned, empty", he said.

"There was total destruction. We have nowhere to live" now, he added.

Israeli forces withdrew from a series of border villages including southeast Lebanon's Odaisseh, Kfar Kila, Mais al-Jabal, Markaba and Hula under an extended ceasefire deadline that expired on Tuesday.

AFP correspondents saw vast destruction around the towns and villages, with long lines of cars waiting for hours from the early morning for the Lebanese army........

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