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After ten weeks of fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants in the Nahr al-Bared palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, much of the camp lies in ruins. Originally home to 40,000 refugees, the camp's housing, schools and hospitals have either been destroyed by army shelling or booby trapped by the militants. But as the army closes in on the Fatah al-Islam militants, the return of those displaced in the fighting is not seen to be imminent. The U.N. says it will urge the displaced not to hurry back until the rubble has been cleared and booby-traps and unexploded munitions have been defused. But the displaced, living in schools and mosques in the nearby Beddawi camp, say they are anxious to go back home once the fighting ends, even if there are no homes left to return to. The United Nation's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says most of the camp's original residents have fled and only a few hundred remain inside. Richard Cook, director of the UNRWA in Lebanon, said he anticipates "a substantial number" of those displaced will have to be housed in temporary accommodation. "I think we are looking at a substantial reconstruction effort once we get into the camp, and we are going to be moving in, in the first days and weeks to do the damage assessment. I say weeks because the final damage assessment will take some time," he said. There are around 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, half of them living in the country's 12 camps, mostly living in substandard conditions and lacking some aspects of basic infrastructure. Cook said he could not estimate reconstruction costs until the fighting had stopped and damage assessed, "but it will certainly run into hundreds of millions of dollars," he added. Cook said UNRWA staff had not had access to the camp for weeks, but the army had reported heavy damage from shelling. Troops have only recently penetrated the official camp perimeter after battling for weeks to evict Fatah al-Islam from a nearby spillover area where many refugees had lived. UNWRA, which takes care of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, has agreed with the Lebanese government to undertake the rebuilding of Nahr al-Bared within its original perimeter. The agency has won pledges totalling $24 million for projects worth $49 million (USD), in addition to $4 million (USD) spent on reconstruction in the camps after last year's war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. The agency's own schools, clinics and other installations have been heavily damaged in the conflict. Humanitarian agencies like UNRWA and others have provided basic medical and food aid for the displaced in Beddawi camp and elsewhere. Saudi Arabia is also handing out money to those affected, but for the refugees this is not enough, and they are angry and restless. "Life is not good here. We are short of everything. We are not comfortable here, we want to go back to our camp, even if it is under rubble, we want to return. At least we would know that we have a house to rest in," said Umm Ghazi, sitting on the floor of one classroom in a Beddawi school. "We are ready to live in the destruction until they repair our houses," said another refugee Yasser Abed el Al. At least 239 people have been killed in the fighting in the camp as troops try to crush Fatah al-Islam, a group of Palestinian, Lebanese and foreign Arab fighters driven by al Qaeda's ideology.