Residents of south Lebanon return to village amid army deployment

Israeli troops withdrew from all but five points in south Lebanon on Tuesday, allowing displaced residents to return to border villages largely destroyed in more than a year of hostilities.

Lebanon said any Israeli presence on its soil constituted "occupation", warning it would ask the UN Security Council to push Israel to leave and that its armed forces were ready to assume duties on the border. In the south, many returned to destroyed or heavily damaged homes, farmland and businesses, after more than a year of clashes that included two months of all-out war and ended with a November 27 ceasefire.