Lebanese civilians returned to their destroyed homes this week

The Shia Muslim group said on Friday that it had compensated 120 families so far with the one-off cash payment, intended to help victims of the bombings rent a flat for a year and furnish it.

Hezbollah has not said where the funds are coming from to compensate people from an estimated 15,000 destroyed homes.

The scheme appears likely to cost at least $150 million.

The Lebanese government has yet to launch any similar scheme.

Ayman Jaber, 27, holding a wad of $12,000 in banknotes wrapped in a tissue, said "this is a very, very reasonable amount. It is not small".

An unfurnished two-bedroom apartment in Beirut's southern suburbs can be rented for about $300 a month.

Reduced to rubble

Jaber's home was in the same southern suburb of the Lebanese capital as Hezbollah's headquarters.

The entire area was reduced to mounds of rubble in the 34-day war, but he said he wanted to stay and find a flat for his extended family of seven.

Nasrallah promised the money after the truce took hold

A Hezbollah official at one of 12 centres set up to organise the hand-out said families were being asked to produce an identity card and a certificate of ownership of the property.

"We have full information on all the buildings that have been destroyed or damaged," he said.

"Later on, we will either pay for new flats or rebuild the buildings that were destroyed."

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, promised the money in his first speech after a truce took hold this week.

He said 15,000 dwellings had been completely destroyed in the Israeli bombardment but the guerrilla group, which runs a large network of health, education and social centres, would also pay for repairs to houses that were still standing.

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