Can the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah hold after the multiple violations noted just one week after its entry into force? Despite the unstable situation, the displaced have returned in large numbers in recent days.
« I’m not sure I’ll spend the winter here », entrusts a resident of a village in the south to our special correspondents at Lebanon, Nicolas Falez et Jad El Khoury. This 80-year-old former school principal, wearing a cap and rubber gloves, clears the small street that winds alongside his house. On the sidewalk opposite, there is nothing left, or rather a shapeless magma of concrete and debris, where several houses in the village of Chehabiyeh once stood.
The old man returned a few days ago and he admits it: he does not feel calm when he listens to the information concerning this ceasefire which has largely been trampled. The old man also recognizes that Hezbollah fighters had settled in one of these destroyed buildings. “ Here, we are quite far from the front. They were meeting here, in a place that had never been targeted “, he says.
In Khirbet Selm, a population has practically returned
The village mayor explains that almost all the residents have returned. When asked about the ceasefire, he says he does not trust the Israelis. When asked about the agreement which provides for the dismantling of Hezbollah weapons in this region, he replied that it is precisely Hezbollah here which protects the inhabitants. He does not hide his proximity to Hezbollah, which everyone here calls “the Resistance”.
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