BINT JBEIL, Lebanon, July 31, 2006 (AFP) - Wild-eyed doctors with long beards and haggard elderly villagers emerged from the ruins of the flashpoint Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil Monday to welcome the first contact from the outside world in almost three weeks.

The first Red Cross convoy, along with a scattering of journalists, rolled in to evacuate casualties from the devastated border town which had been caught up in fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas.

At the sight of the rescue teams arriving, dazzled elderly villagers ventured out of their homes to meet the town's first newcomers since clashes cut it off from the rest of the world nearly three weeks ago.

A clearly terrified elderly man carrying a small child rushed to the rescue teams, beseeching them to take him out of the town, where dozens of buildings have been levelled by the Israeli bombardment.

After a week of intense air and ground bombardment, the border area's main town, which used to house up to 40,000 people, is a mass of mangled concrete and steel.

In some neighbourhoods, it is hard to tell where the roads used to run because of the devastation sustained by the adjacent buildings. Shops were destroyed if not totally burnt out.

Fallen walls, dangling balconies and bullet-riddled facades are all that is left of most structures.

Wrecked cars with shattered windshields, some overturned, lie in the middle of the streets. White feathers cover the ground where dozens of dead chicken still lie, the air thick with the smell of rotting flesh. Israeli forces left Bint Jbeil on July 28 after enduring a week of tough resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas but access to the town remains blocked by relentless bombardments and continued fighting.

The guerrillas inflicted heavy casualties in Israeli ranks, including nine dead and 22 wounded in and around the town on July 26, the deadliest day for Israeli troops since they began their offensive nearly three weeks ago.

The safe access to Bint Jbeil came after Israel agreed to suspend air raids on Lebanon for 48 hours following global outrage over the killing of 52 civilians in strikes on the southern village of Qana.

Around midday (0900 GMT), a convoy of ambulances from the Lebanese Red Cross and civil defence reached Bint Jbeil to evacuate the wounded and the few remaining residents.

After the evacuation, the town's hospital was totally deserted bar a few doctors who had grown long beards after days of not being able to shave. They were clearing rubble from the building, part of which was destroyed.

Only a few dozen mostly elderly residents have stayed behind. The stranded villagers had stayed much of the time at home, eating the few vegetables they could pick from their backyards.

But despite the scenes of destruction, one elderly woman refused to leave.

"Sayyed Hassan (Nasrallah) will lead us to victory," said the woman, referring to the Hezbollah chief.

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