Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have returned to the remains of their homes in the South of the country. Rebuilding started the day the ceasefire started with Hizbullah playing a major role, clearing roads and helping to dig out survivors and the dead from collapsed buildings. Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah has promised a year's rent and a set of new furniture for every family whose house has been destroyed in the fighting. With billions of dollars worth of damages, NGOs and Western governments have been much slower in their response; the US has only promised $50 million and an international donors' conference in Stockholm isn't scheduled until August 31st.
US Counters Hizbullah Rebuilding | Hizbullah revs up Aid to Victims | Spontaneous Mutual Aid in Lebanon

One major challenge facing returning Lebanese are unexploded bombs. During the month of hostilities, Israel dropped thousands of US made munitions including many cluster bombs. Cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground launched shells that eject multiple small submunitions. Submunitions are classified as either bomblets, grenades, or mines. They are small explosive-filled or chemical-filled items designed for saturation coverage of a large area. ...Each of these delivery systems disperses its payload of submunitions while still in flight, and the submunitions drop over the target. Human Rights Watch opposes all use of cluster munitions with high initial failure rates, including the weapons that Israel used in Lebanon, because of the prolonged danger they pose to civilians. In Southern Lebanon, thousands of unexploded bomblets have turned some areas into virtual minefields, and there are already reports of death from cluster bombs among returning refugees.
Israeli cluster bombs blanket Lebanese towns | Cluster bombing of Lebanon 'immoral' UN official tells Israel | Ana Nogueira Investigates the Lasting Dangers of Unexploded Israeli Cluster Bombs | Landmines and Unexploded Ordinances: Israel's Legacy in Southern Lebanon | Unexploded cluster bombs prompt fear and fury in returning refugees | Clusterbombs in Southern Lebanon | Israel asks U.S. to ship cluster bombs quickly | HRW Urges No Cluster Bombs to Israel | Robert Fisk: Lebanon's pain grows by the hour as death toll hits 1,300 | Israeli Ambassador Grilled on Use of Cluster Bombs

In Beirut and along the Lebanese coast, the war has left both the water and air in poor shape. Chemicals and dust from the buildings hit during Israeli air strikes have badly polluted the air and land in S Beirut. Along the coast Lebanese volunteers have started to clean oil-stained beaches. Nearly 15,000 tons of heavy fuel oil spilled onto Lebanon's coast after Israel bombed Jiyyeh power station,50 kilometers south of Beirut, causing the biggest ecological crisis in the country's history.
The war's other victim: the environment | Lebanon Facing its Worst Environmental Disaster Ever: Oil Spill From Israeli Strike | Oil Spill Reaches Syrian Coastline | Lebanon: Environmental catastrophe threatens Mediterranean