Tens of thousands of Lebanese driven out by the war between Hezbollah and Israel set out on their way back on Wednesday, to find their towns and villages devastated after the ceasefire came into force.
The truce puts an end to the conflict that began more than 13 months ago between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Islamist movement, which turned into open war in September and left thousands dead. Around 900,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon and 60,000 in northern Israel.
Before dawn, displaced residents of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa in the east of the country, Hezbollah strongholds, set out by the thousands on the road home, in cars and overloaded minibuses, mattresses and suitcases piled up on the roofs.
In the ruins of the southern suburbs, Hezbollah supporters brandished its yellow flag or 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 […] to attacks by the Israeli enemy.
Back in Nabatiyé, in southern Lebanon, Ali Mazraani said he was “shocked by the massive destruction” of this city, which now seems foreign to him.
“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 house devastated 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 to want to secure its northern border and allow the return of displaced people.
Gradual withdrawal
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, the strengthening of its presence in the south.
The Israeli army, for its part, called on residents not to approach its positions in southern Lebanon.
“We control positions in southern Lebanon, our planes continue to fly in the Lebanese sky. […] Today we arrested suspects and killed terrorists,” said army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. He added that the army struck “180 targets” during the night before the ceasefire.
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 which 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.
Israeli editorialists were skeptical, fearing that Hezbollah would reconstitute its forces or pointing out the lack of progress towards a truce in Gaza.
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.
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