Thousands of Lebanese return to their homes as Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire takes hold

TYRE, Lebanon -

Thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants returned home on Wednesday as a ceasefire took hold, driving cars stacked with personal belongings and defying warnings from Lebanese and Israeli troops to stay away from some areas.

If it endures, the ceasefire would end nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated in mid-September into all-out war and threatened to pull Hezbollah's patron, Iran, and Israel's closest ally, the United States, into a broader conflagration.

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The deal does not address the war in Gaza, where Israeli strikes overnight on two schools-turned-shelters in Gaza City killed 11 people, including four children, according to hospital officials. Israel said one strike targeted a Hamas sniper and the other targeted militants hiding among civilians.

The truce in Lebanon could give reprieve to the 1.2 million Lebanese displaced by the fighting and the tens of thousands of Israelis who fled their homes along the border.

“They were a nasty and ugly 60 days,” said Mohammed Kaafarani, 59, who was displaced from the Lebanese village of Bidias. “We reached a point where there was no place to hide."

The U.S.- and France-brokered deal, approved by Israel late Tuesday, calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border.

Thousands of additional Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor compliance.

Israel says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah should it violate the terms of the deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said troops arrested four Hezbollah operatives, including a local commander, who had entered what it referred to as a restricted area. It said troops have been ordered to prevent people from returning to villages near the border.

Israel is still fighting Hamas militants in Gaza in response to the group’s cross-border raid into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But President Joe Biden on Tuesday said his administration would make another push in the coming days for a ceasefire there and the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas.

Hezbollah supporters declare victory despite devastation

Israel can claim major victories in the war, including the killing of Hezbollah’s top leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of its senior commanders, as well as the destruction of extensive militant infrastructure. A complex attack involving exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, widely attributed to Israel, appeared to show a remarkable degree of penetration of the secretive militant group.

The battered Hezbollah has lost much of the mystique it acquired by fighting Israel to a stalemate in the 2006 war. Yet the Shiite militant group still managed to put up heavy resistance, slowing Israel’s advance while firing scores of rockets, missiles and drones across the border each day.

“This is a moment of victory, pride and honor for us, the Shiite sect, and for all of Lebanon,” said Hussein Sweidan, a resident returning to the port city of Tyre. Sporadic celebratory gunfire was heard at a main roundabout in the city, as drivers honked their horns and residents cheered.

Israel carried out heavy strikes until the ceasefire took hold, pounding targets in the already hard-hit southern suburbs of Beirut known as the Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah was headquartered. Residents returning to its rubble-strewn streets on Wednesday projected defiance.

“We don’t care about the rubble or destruction. We lost our livelihood, our properties, but it’s okay, it will all come back," said Fatima Hanifa, evoking the rebuilding after the 2006 war.

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"It will be even more beautiful. And I say to Netanyahu that you have lost, and lost, and lost because we are back and the others (Israelis) didn’t come back.”

Other Lebanese are more critical of Hezbollah, accusing it of having dragged the economically devastated country into an unnecessary war on behalf of its patron, Iran.

"They control us and we can't do anything about it. This war killed whoever it killed and now they're telling us it's a victory," said a young man who was returning from neighbouring Syria after being displaced from the eastern Bekaa province. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution.

Some Israelis are concerned the deal doesn’t go far enough

In Israel, the mood was far more subdued, with displaced Israelis concerned that Hezbollah had not been defeated and that there was no progress toward returning hostages held in Gaza.

“I think it is still not safe to return to our homes because Hezbollah is still close to us,” said Eliyahu Maman, who was displaced from the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, which was hit hard by the months of fighting.

A handful of people milled around the city on Wednesday, inspecting damage from earlier rocket attacks. The town’s shopping mall, which had been hit before, appeared to have new damage, and a rocket was planted in the ground next to an apartment building.

A significant return of the displaced to their communities, many of which have suffered extensive damage from rocket fire, could take months.

Israel warns Lebanese not to return to border as troops remain

The Israeli military warned displaced Lebanese not to return to evacuated villages in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops were still present following their ground invasion in early October. Israeli forces opened fire to push back a number of vehicles that were entering a restricted area, it said.

Three journalists, including a freelance photographer working for The Associated Press, said they were shot and wounded by Israeli troops while covering the return of displaced people to the town of Khiam, around 6 kilometers (4 miles) from the border, which had seen heavy fighting in recent days. The Israeli military said it was investigating.

An Israeli security official said Israeli forces remained in their positions hours after the ceasefire began and will only gradually withdraw.

The official said the pace of the withdrawal and the scheduled return of Lebanese civilians would depend on whether the deal is implemented and enforced. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the deal and its implementation with the media.

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The Lebanese military asked displaced people returning to southern Lebanon to avoid frontline villages and towns until Israeli forces withdraw.

Residents will return to vast destruction wrought by the Israeli military, with entire villages flattened. The military said it found vast weapons caches and infrastructure it says was meant for Hezbollah to launch an Oct. 7-style attack on northern Israel.

More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the start of the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel, more than half civilians, as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press journalists Alon Bernstein in Haifa, Israel, Leo Correa in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.