Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee reiterated Thursday morning a warning to Lebanese residents not to enter the area adjoining the Israeli border, and demarcated by a line running from the towns of Mansouri in the west to Chebaa in ballast.
“You are not allowed to return to your homes south of this line until further notice,” he said. “Anyone traveling south of this line is exposed to danger,” he added.
“We are indeed in a second Cold War, we are going to have consequences worthy of a war at home”
“We feel reborn”
In the ruins of the southern suburbs, Hezbollah supporters waved on Thursday the yellow flags of the movement and portraits of their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, killed at the end of September by Israel.
“This heroic suburb” has “conquered, we are proud,” Nizam Hamadé, an engineer, told AFP.
The Shiite movement, decapitated by Israeli strikes, nevertheless proclaimed its “victory”, adding that its fighters “will remain fully ready to face (…) the attacks of the Israeli enemy”.
Back in Nabatiyé, in southern Lebanon, Ali Mazraani said he was “shocked by the massive destruction” of this town, which now seems “foreign”.
“Despite the extent of the destruction and our pain, we are happy to have returned,” said Oum Mohamed Bzeih, a 44-year-old widow who found her devastated house in the village of Zebqine. “We feel reborn.”
Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, opened a front “in support” of Hamas against Israel at the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
After months of exchanges of fire on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border, Israel launched a massive bombing campaign on the movement’s strongholds on September 23, followed by ground operations in southern Lebanon, claiming wanting to secure its northern border and allow the return of displaced people.
“The children” of the south
Under the agreement sponsored by the United States and France, the Israeli army has 60 days to gradually withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah must also retreat to the north of the Litani River, around thirty kilometers from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese army announced on Wednesday that it was beginning, “in coordination” with the UN peace force, UNIFIL, to strengthen its presence in the south.
According to Lebanese authorities, at least 3,823 people have been killed in the country 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 prevent “what remains of Hezbollah” and other groups from “once again threatening the security of Israel”.
Washington and Paris relied on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UNIFIL can be deployed in the border regions of southern Lebanon.
Israel reserves “total freedom of military action” in Lebanon, “if Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to rearm”, warned its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Shiite movement will cooperate with the Lebanese state to strengthen the deployment of the army in the south, one of its deputies, Hassan Fadlallah, assured AFP on Wednesday. But its members “are the children of the villages” of the south, from where “no one” can drive them out, he added.
“Not completely reassured”
After more than a year of rushing to shelters as soon as the sirens sounded, residents of northern Israel enjoyed the newfound calm on Wednesday, but remained on their guard.
In Nahariya, a coastal town within rocket range of Lebanese territory, Baha Arafat, a 44-year-old man, said he was relieved. “I feel much better now that I know there is a ceasefire,” he confided. “There is no shelter in the area and the last few days have been tense.”
“There is a feeling of greater security, our children can return to school,” said Yuri, 43, displaced from his kibbutz Yiron, near the border, to Haifa.
But “we do not feel completely reassured”, because “Hezbollah still has strength”, he added.
According to Mr. Netanyahu, the truce will allow Israel to “focus on the Iranian threat” and “intensify” its pressure on Hamas.
Israel intends to “make all necessary efforts to create the conditions for a new exchange of hostages,” assured Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Two months before the end of his mandate, Joe Biden will renew his efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, by involving “Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and other actors in the region”, according to his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan,
A Hamas official told AFP on Wednesday that his movement was “ready for a ceasefire agreement” in Gaza.
