Tens of thousands of Lebanese driven out by hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel return home on Wednesday, after the entry into force of the ceasefire which puts an end to two months of open war between the Israeli army and the Lebanese movement armed ally of Iran.
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• Also read: Ceasefire enters into force in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah
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The truce, since 4 a.m. (2 a.m. GMT), suspends the conflict that began 13 months ago, which left thousands dead and 900,000 displaced in Lebanon, also driving tens of thousands of people from their homes in Israel.
Displaced residents of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and Bekaa (east), Hezbollah strongholds, immediately took the road home.
The southern suburbs of Beirut, still bombarded at dawn on Wednesday, are crisscrossed with Hezbollah supporters, brandishing the party’s yellow flag or portraits of their leader killed at the end of September by Israel, Hassan Nasrallah, to the sound of celebratory gunfire.
“We are returning to this heroic suburb” which has “conquered, we are proud,” Nizam Hamadé, an engineer, told AFP.
Overloaded cars and vans formed long lines on the axis towards the south of the country, drivers honking and singing.
Having just returned to her southern village of Zebqine, Hawraa Beizh, a university professor discovers “enormous destruction”. But she told AFP that she was determined to settle back in her family home, “because it is our land and we are going to stay there”.
The Israeli army, however, warned residents of the region not to approach positions where it remains deployed, or localities from which it has ordered the evacuation. She reported several skirmishes in the morning, indicating having shot at “suspects”.
Hezbollah opened a “support” front for Hamas against Israel at the start of the war in Gaza, triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil.
Massive bombings
After months of cross-border firefights, Israel launched a massive bombing campaign targeting Hezbollah on September 23, and deployed soldiers on the 30th in southern Lebanon, on its northern border.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced on Wednesday that the army would “strengthen its deployment” in the south of the country, as part of the agreement which provides for the gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from the sector.
Mr. Mikati expressed the hope of “a new page” for Lebanon, calling for the rapid election of a President of the Republic, of which the country has been deprived for more than two years by its political divisions.
According to Lebanese authorities, at least 3,823 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, most since the end of September. On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians died in 13 months, according to the authorities.
According to US President Joe Biden, the agreement must lead to a permanent cessation of hostilities, and prevent “what remains of Hezbollah” and other groups from “once again threatening the security of Israel”.
Pressure in Gaza
In diplomatic maneuvers for weeks, Washington, Israel’s great ally, and Paris have committed to implementing the agreement “in its entirety”.
International diplomacy relied on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and stipulates in particular that only the Lebanese army and the Blue Helmets can be deployed on the southern border of Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that his country reserved “total freedom of military action” in Lebanon, “if Hezbollah violates the agreement and attempts to rearm.”
If the Lebanese party has still not reacted, the President of Parliament, Nabih Berri, who negotiated the truce on his behalf, also called on Wednesday for national “unity” and a rapid election of a leader. ‘State.
Having become an essential political force in Lebanon in recent years, Hezbollah has emerged considerably weakened from the conflict, its leadership largely decimated.
Mr. Netanyahu argued that the truce will allow Israel to “focus on the Iranian threat,” and “intensify” its pressure on Palestinian Hamas.
Commitments about which Israeli editorialists expressed their doubts: “why didn’t he do in Gaza what he did in Lebanon”, questioned the major center daily Yediot Aharonot in particular.
Towards a hostage exchange?
Israel intends to “make all necessary efforts to create the conditions for a new exchange of hostages,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.
Sworn enemy of Israel, Iran welcomed “the cessation of Israeli aggression” in Lebanon”, its embassy in Beirut congratulating “the Resistance” for its “glorious victory”, in a message on X.
A member of the Hamas political bureau welcomed a “major success for the resistance”, telling AFP that the Palestinian movement was also “ready for a ceasefire agreement” in the Strip. Gaza.
Mediator in this conflict, Qatar said it hoped for “a similar agreement” to silence the weapons in the besieged Palestinian territory, devastated and in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe.
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority expressed hope that the truce would “help stop violence and instability” in the region.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or died in captivity. .
The Israeli offensive carried out in retaliation in Gaza killed at least 44,282 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
