From BBC.

‘Turned away’

“Hezbollah say they don’t differentiate between Lebanese people,” said Sita Balhas, a mother of five in the village of Siddiqine.

“But when my son was wounded in the war, he went to one of Hezbollah’s medical centre, they told him: your legs are not for Hezbollah, so we won’t treat you.”

The Balhas tobacco crop was mostly burned during the conflict, their butchers shop destroyed, but they say they didn’t receive any aid from Hezbollah.

They haven’t received anything from the government either – but their anger seems mostly directed at Hezbollah.

“The government is powerless, they don’t have money. Hezbollah started the war, they should pay us compensation,” said Sita.

Hezbollah wields enormous power and control over the Shia community so it’s unusual to hear criticism of Hezbollah among ordinary people, but disgruntled voices are starting to be heard occasionally.

Widening rift

The nearby Christian village of Ain Ebel is practically a ghost town.

Those villagers who remain blame Hezbollah for the conflict – which started after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers – but are glad about the deployment of government forces in the area.

“After the war it’s so different, after so many years in an area without any Lebanese security forces here we see now the army, we see the checkpoints,” said Emad Lallousse, a translator for Unifil.

He dismisses claims that Hezbollah is needed to “defend” south Lebanon.

“We can live without any war, like the Egyptian, like the Jordanians, like the Syrians, why do we always have to worry about defending south Lebanon?”

Tensions in south Lebanon about who should defend – and control – this region are amplified in Beirut where the political standoff continues between the government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Although most people in the south still support the Shia group, the country as a whole is split down the middle and the rift is only widening.