“I didn’t expect such damage. We have seen the photos, but the reality is harsher,” said Dunia Najdeh, 33.

As she struggled to protect her children from the shards of glass scattered among their books and toys, her father-in-law, Sleiman Najdeh, watched in despair at the devastation wrought on the ancient city.

“There is no more water or electricity, even the private generators no longer work, their cables are cut,” says the sixty-year-old.

“Tyre and Lebanon do not deserve what happened… but God will compensate us, and Tire will be even better than it was before,” he said.

Since the end of September, Israel has launched successive devastating strikes on the southern city, which is home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Entire neighborhoods were ravaged and with them hundreds of homes and vital infrastructure in the city which was home to 120,000 people before they fled the intense bombardment.

The main artery that crosses the city is now occupied by bulldozers collecting the rubble of destroyed buildings.

The city’s mayor, Hassan Dbouk, told AFP that “more than 50 buildings of three to 12 floors were completely destroyed by Israeli strikes”, while dozens of others were partially damaged.

“We can say that no house was spared,” he said.

Despite long queues of motorists returning en masse to the city, all shops and restaurants remained closed on Thursday, the second day of the ceasefire.

“Residents have started to return to inspect their homes during the day, but they leave at night because there is no water in the entire city and no electricity in the neighborhoods most affected by the Israeli strikes,” explained Dbouk.

On November 18, an Israeli strike targeted the Tire water company, destroying a building and killing two workers.

The strike cut off water to 30,000 registered customers, its president Walid Barakat said.

The strike also destroyed the pumps and the pipe network, AFP journalists observed during a press tour in the city organized by Hezbollah.

“There were no rockets or launchers here. This is vital public infrastructure that has been targeted by Israeli aggression,” Barakat said.

Rebuilding the town is expected to take between three and six months, he said, adding that temporary solutions were being found to provide water to returning residents.

Heavy strikes fell on southern Lebanon, stopping only an hour before the ceasefire came into force at dawn on Wednesday.

This latest raid targeted the district of Tire where Syrian tailor Anas Mdallali has lived for 10 years.

“I cried with rage,” says the forty-year-old, looking carefully at the piles of rubble blocking the entrance to his building.

“Since yesterday I have been taking sedatives for shock.”

At the port of the old town, fishing boats have remained moored since the beginning of October.

Madhi Istanbuli, 37, said he and his fellow fishermen had not gone to sea since the Israeli army warned them not to do so.

“We are watching the situation and waiting,” said the father of four.

“Sometimes when I look at the sea and I hear the sound of the waves, I think it’s airstrikes… We’re still in shock.”

-Agence France-Presse