Tens of thousands of Lebanese return home after ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah – 11/27/2024 at 4:16 p.m.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese driven out by the hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel set out on their way home on Wednesday, after the entry into force of the ceasefire which ended two months of open war between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Islamist movement.

The truce, which began at 4:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT), puts an end to the conflict that began more than 13 months ago, which left thousands dead and 900,000 displaced in Lebanon, also driving out some 60,000 inhabitants of northern Israel .

Displaced residents of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and Bekaa in the east of the country, Hezbollah strongholds, immediately took the road home.

The southern suburbs of Beirut, still bombarded at dawn on Wednesday, were crisscrossed with supporters of the movement, brandishing its yellow flag or portraits of their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, killed at the end of September by Israel.

Hezbollah is now preparing a “popular and official” funeral for this leader, said one of its officials, on a tour organized for the media in these neighborhoods.

“This heroic suburb” has “conquered, we are proud,” Nizam Hamadé, an engineer, told AFP.

Back in Nabatiyé, Ali Mazraani said he was “shocked by the massive destruction” of this town in southern Lebanon, which now seems “foreign”.

Also faced with “enormous destruction” in her village of Zebqine, Hawraa Beizh, a university professor, however decided to resettle there. “This is our land,” she said.

The Israeli army warned residents of the region to stay away from its positions or from the localities from which it ordered the evacuation and reported several skirmishes, indicating that it had fired on “suspects”.

Hezbollah opened a front “in support” of 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.

After months of exchanges of fire, Israel launched massive bombings on the movement’s strongholds across Lebanon on September 23, before launching land operations in the south of the country, on its northern border, on September 30.

– “Israel’s security” –

The Lebanese army announced that it was beginning “in coordination” with the UN peace force, UNIFIL, to strengthen its presence in the south.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Israeli army has 60 days to gradually withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah must also withdraw from the country’s southern border with Israel and move north of the Litani River, around thirty from the border.

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, in the diplomatic maneuver, relied on resolution 1701 of the UN Security Council which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and stipulates that only the national army and the 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”, underlined its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hezbollah, whose leadership was largely decimated by Israeli strikes, did not react on Wednesday.

The Shiite movement will demonstrate “total cooperation” for the deployment of the army in the south, one of its deputies, Hassan Fadlallah, told AFP.

But its members “are the children of the villages” of the south, from where “no one” can drive them out, he added.

– “Pressure” on Hamas and Iran –

According to Mr. Netanyahu, the truce will allow Israel to “focus on the Iranian threat” and “intensify” its pressure on Hamas.

Israeli editorialists were skeptical, fearing that Hezbollah would reconstitute its forces or pointing out the lack of progress for a truce in Gaza and the return of the hostages.

Israel intends to “make all necessary efforts to create the conditions for a new exchange of hostages,” assured Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“There is a feeling of greater security, our children can go back to school,” said Yuri, 43, displaced from his kibbutz Yiron, near the border, to Haifa, in northern Israel. . But “we do not feel completely reassured”, because “Hezbollah still has strength”, he added.

Israel’s sworn enemy, Iran, welcomed “the cessation of Israeli aggression”, its embassy in Beirut congratulating “the Resistance” for its “glorious victory”.

A Hamas official welcomed a “major success for the resistance” and told AFP that his movement was also “ready for a ceasefire agreement” in Gaza.

Mediator in this conflict, Qatar said it hoped for “a similar agreement” to silence the weapons in the besieged, devastated Palestinian territory 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 left at least 44,282 dead, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.