Thousands of Lebanese head home as Israel-Hezbollah truce takes hold

The war escalated after nearly a year of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, whose attack on Israel in October last year sparked the devastating war in Gaza.

Israel shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon in September to secure its northern border from attacks by Hezbollah, and dealt the movement a relentless string of staggering blows.

The Iran-backed group, which has yet to formally comment on the ceasefire, emerges from the war massively weakened but not crushed, and still mourning the killing in an Israeli air raid of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Traffic on the road from the Lebanese capital to the main southern city of Sidon was congested since the early hours, as thousands of people headed back to their homes.

AFP journalists saw cars and minibuses packed with people carrying mattresses, suitcases and blankets heading south, with some honking and singing in celebration as Hezbollah supporters portrayed the truce as a victory.

“What we feel is indescribable,” said one Lebanese driver on the road to the south. “The people have won!”

Final hours

In Lebanon, more than 900,000 people fled their homes in recent weeks, according to the UN, as Israel pounded areas around the country with a focus on areas where Hezbollah holds sway.

Lebanon says at least 3,823 people have been killed in the country since exchanges of fire began in October 2023, most of them in recent weeks.

On the Israeli side, the hostilities with Hezbollah have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.

The final hours before the truce took hold at 4am (0200 GMT) on Wednesday were among the most violent particularly for the capital, Beirut, with Israeli strikes hitting areas including the busy commercial district of Hamra.

Hezbollah too continued to claim attacks on Israel all the way up to the start of the truce.

When the ceasefire began, the Israeli military warned that residents of south Lebanon should not approach military positions and villages its forces had called to be evacuated.

Lebanon’s army said it was “taking the necessary measures” to deploy forces south, and called on people not to return to frontline villages until the Israeli military withdraws.

“The army command calls on citizens to wait before returning to frontline villages and towns that Israeli enemy forces have penetrated, awaiting their withdrawal,” it said.

Hezbollah backer Iran welcomed the end of Israel’s “aggression” in Lebanon, while Hamas said it was ready for a truce of its own in Gaza.

Iran’s embassy in Lebanon issued a statement on X congratulating Hezbollah on its “glorious victory”, recalling language used by Tehran’s proxies in previous wars against Israel, despite devastating losses.

The truce in Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, will permit Israel to redirect its efforts back to Gaza, where it has been at war with Hamas since October of last year.

“When Hezbollah is out of the picture, Hamas is left alone in the fight. Our pressure on it will intensify,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel would also focus on “the Iranian threat”.

Iran is the main backer of both Hezbollah and Hamas, and has fired two barrages of missiles and drones at Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, in response to attacks attributed to Israel.

Since October last year, Israel has also intensified its strikes on Syria, the main conduit of Hezbollah’s weapons from Iran to Lebanon.

Syria’s defence ministry said six people were killed in Israeli strikes on border crossings with Lebanon on Wednesday, hours before the ceasefire with Hezbollah began.

60 days

After weeks of international pressure on Israel, US President Joe Biden announced the ceasefire agreement on Tuesday.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, US envoy Amos Hochstein said Israeli forces positioned two to three kilometres (1.2 to 1.8 miles) from the border with Lebanon “will remain in place for now”, and leave gradually over the next 60 days, beginning in the “next several days, or first couple of weeks”.

“But there is a lot to do in these 60 days,” Hochstein said in the interview.

“The Lebanese army cannot deploy that many forces that quickly all across the south when they haven’t been there in such a long time,” he said, noting Lebanese armed forces will move in as Israeli forces depart.

The United States is Israel’s key ally and military backer, and Biden hailed the deal as “good news” and a “new start” for Lebanon.

Netanyahu thanked Biden for his involvement in brokering the deal, under whose terms Israel will maintain “full” freedom to act against Hezbollah should the Iran-backed group pose any new threat.

Dreams of peace

Hezbollah was the only armed group that refused to surrender its weapons after the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war ended.

To date, the group has maintained a strong presence in parts of Lebanon and its arsenal is believed to be more powerful than that of the national army.

While the mood in Lebanon was of jubilation punctured by loss, in Israel there was no indication of a return en masse of the 60,000 people forced to flee their homes by Hezbollah’s fire.

Still, many Israelis exhausted by a year of war with Hamas and Hezbollah voiced hope the ceasefire could signal a brighter future.

“My opinion is that after a year-plus of war, of shelling, of hostages in the south, a ceasefire agreement is an agreement that should give Israel some kind of an opening for hope,” said Roni Alon, a retired resident of Haifa in northern Israel.

“I hope there will be peace in the world, the Jewish people are a peace-seeking people, they are a people who want peace.”