Southern suburb of Beirut 1. Wide of destroyed buildings and streets, mountains of debris 2. Wide of destroyed buildings and destruction on the ground 3. Mid shot of debris and wreckage 4. Wide of two men stood in area covered in wreckage 5. Empty street covered in debris 6. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Samir Doumit, Head of Lebanese Engineers Union: "Six to seven thousand apartments, the cost goes beyond 1.5 (b) billion US dollars or 1.25 (b) billion US dollars. As for the huge buildings, the cost even reaches 1.5 (b) billion US dollars. This is in the construction sector." 7. Mid shot of destroyed section of highway 8. Shelled section of highway 9. Wide of destroyed raised section of highway 10. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Samir Doumit, Head of Lebanese Engineers Union: "The cost of reconstruction rises to three to four (b) billion US dollars. So it is not easy to be ready to this." 11. Wide of destroyed raised section of highway 12. Wide of destroyed highway 13. Mid shot of destroyed highway 14 .SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Samir Doumit, Head of Lebanese Engineers Union: "If we do a survey on the damage, there are more than 100 thousand civilians who won't be able to return home because their houses have been destroyed." 15. Various desolate bombed out city landscapes STORYLINE: The once vibrant southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut now stand in ruins following close to a month of heavy pounding from Israeli air strikes. Thousands of homes in these Shiite dominated neighbourhoods have been destroyed along with more than 70 bridges, dozens of roads, gas fuel stations and depots, warehouses, factories, schools, telecommunication centres, civil defences and hospitals. Given the suburbs' status as a Hezbollah stronghold, the results for Beirut have been devastating. Samir Doumit, a leading engineer, estimates the cost of rebuilding destroyed residential property alone to be close to 1.5 (b) billion US dollars. The estimate rises when consideration is given to repairing the flattened infrastructures of city life. Ports of entry into the city have been reduced to rubble. Beirut's International Airport has been bombed. Last week a further four key bridges linking Beirut to the north were destroyed as Israeli forces continue to tighten its siege on Hezbollah and its supporters. Doumit, asked to forecast the overall cost of rebuilding affected areas of Beirut, estimates a four billion (b) US dollar reconstruction project. The city - referred in better times as the Paris of the East - will take years to rebuild just when Lebanon had been preparing for a bumper tourist season. Earlier this year, the country's tourism ministry predicted more than 1.6 (m) million visitors over the summer period alone. The reality is an unsteady stream instead of emergency relief and aid workers who struggle to reach Beirut at all. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/c8e2d87e725d5fee45c35086ba6624f5 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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