'I love Hizbollah. I named my son after their rockets because he was born as the Israelis' bombs fell on us' MIDDLE EAST WAR: DAY 26.

Byline: By CHRIS HUGHES Security Correspondent, in Beirut

THEY have lived for weeks in a makeshift bunker 100ft below the war-battered streets of Beirut. Yesterday we found 1,700 Lebanese refugees torn from their homes by relentless Israeli bombing.

Instead of cowering, the experience has radicalised them into Hizbollah supporters.

You would think hundreds of penniless families hiding from the Israeli fighter jets would feel crushed after being reduced to a miserable existence.

That they might have turned against the fanatical Islamicist fighters whose battle with Israel has led to their communities being smashed to rubble.

But in the fetid gloom of an underground car park we found Hizbollah support growing in the dark corners five storeys below the capital.

There was Fatima Maatoouk, 35, nursing tiny 18-day-old war child Raaed.

He was born in the blitz and named after a Hizbollah rocket.

The proud mother-of-seven smiles as she nurses sleeping Raaed next to her new home, a concrete pillar and some blankets.

She says: "I love Hizbollah. I named my son after the rockets because he was born as the Israeli bombs fell down on us. Israel cannot beat us.

"Raaed is the new generation and he will love Hizbollah too. Of course I support Hizbollah. Now more than ever before.

"All of my children know Hizbollah and they know Israel and they know Hizbollah will fight for the Lebanese."

When I ask where her husband Shehab is she points up above the shelter to indicate he is above ground.

On a wall lies a picture of Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, hailed with victory signs by kids and a Lebanese woman Bartoul, 20.

A Hizbollah minder with us tells me the words beneath Nasrallah say: "Victory will come after Haifa is rocketed. Death to Israel." Nearby is a family of 11 including three children, Hamad, eight, his sister Israa, six, and 18-month-old Ali.

Their new home lies along a 10ft section of concrete wall flanked by some food parcels, a boiling kettle, a couple of mattresses and some blankets.

Hamad is being seen to daily by a psychologist brought in by Hizbollah men because he is traumatised by the daily Israeli bombs.

Every few minutes he runs to a door which leads to stairs that go up to ground level and looks upwards, open-mouthed.

HIS cousin Fatima tells me: "Hamad is looking for the Israeli planes. He knows that's where the bombs come from."

Hamad seems utterly disorientated and walks off constantly before being brought back to his family by aunties and uncles.

A nasty-looking bruise on his arm is a remnant from a fist-fight he had with another child in the bunker two days ago.

Fatima, 18, a language student who speaks perfect English, shrugs and says: "Hamad was angry and he got into a fight.

"Sometimes when we watch TV down here he asks me: 'Why are Lebanese children dying? Why are Lebanese men dying in the war?' We tell him it is because Israel is killing them.

"We all support Hizbollah. I see the men fighting and dying for Lebanon down in the south and it makes me feel proud. Women and children down here fight Israel too.

"Perhaps not with guns like the men but with our hearts, with our belief and with our guts. Of course we will be victorious in this fight. There is no question we will win. Israel cannot and will not beat us. Hizbollah will not be beaten."

Evidence of the scale of Hizbollah's preparation for this war is everywhere. There is food, water, blankets, mattresses, toilets and areas where women and children can wash.

All around the place there are families sleeping, some cooking food on portable cookers, boiling water for tea.

Hizbollah doctors also visit.

Despite some ventilation being pumped into the shelters the temperature is sweltering and every few minutes the lighting goes out.

As darkness falls over the cavernous area there are echoes of parents' "oohs" and "ahs" cheering up their frightened children by making the terrifying place into a game.

Above ground it is mid-morning but you would not know it deep in the bowels of the underground car park.

Fatima smiles and says: "We are okay down here. We are well looked after by the Hizbollah. They give us everything we need and we don't really need much.

"No, I am not frightened. God will help us survive this."

Fatima, whose parents Ali, 52, and Samira, 48, have refused to leave their home in Beirut south, says a Hizbollah Sheikh regularly visits the shelter.

She says: "We pray down here and everything is brought to us.

"We were even given a television set so we can watch Nasrallah speaking to us."

I TELL Fatima some British politicians believed the war might make Hizbollah's power base implode when the effect on Lebanon kicked in.

I say they thought this would happen when there were food and water shortages and people put out of their homes.

She smiles and says: "Support for Hizbollah grows with every Lebanese death and Israeli bomb. This is natural. We are not frightened."

Nearby the Hizbollah man who brought us down here shrugs when I wonder where ll the food and water came from and ask: "Was it stockpiled?"

He says: "This is the duty of Hizbollah to ook after the people, to fight for what we elieve and support the women and children.

"We are looking after the people of Lebanon. Of course this is our duty to do this. Why would we not do these things." Above ground a group of Lebanese Army troops pull up and demand our ID cards, questioning what we are doing here.

One says: "Are you American?"

When I answer that I am British he says: "I am sorry for this. We have to check who you are as this is a very dangerous spot.

"I think it better if you leave the area now. Israel is attacking all the time near here. Lebanon is being destroyed by Israel."

PEACEOMETER

026

DAYS

853

DEADS

AND BLAIR STILL WON'T CALL FOR A CEASEFIRE NOW

Pictures: JAMES VELLACOTT

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CAPTION(S):

BUNKER BABES: Hamad, eight, and his sister Israa, six, in their air raid shelter' SURVIVAL: Fatima Maatouk and Raaed'