India, April 24 -- In areas of southern Lebanon, it has occupied since agreeing last week to a ceasefire with Hezbollah, the Israeli army has been destroying homes it says were used as outposts by the Iran-backed militant group.

But the demolitions are happening on such a wide scale that residents, Lebanese officials and UN peacekeepers are increasingly worried that large numbers of people displaced by the latest war will have nowhere to return if the fragile truce holds.

From a hill overlooking Beit Lif - about 4 km (2.5 mi) north of Lebanon's border with Israel 3 Associated Press journalists could see that the village, once home to a few thousand people, had been almost entirely flattened.

"They were demolishing it gradually until th...