Thousands stream homeward as fragile peace begins in Lebanon
BEIRUT — Thousands of civilians began the journey back to their war-ravaged, mostly abandoned communities around Beirut and in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a U.S.-backed ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took tenuous hold after more than 13 months of bloodshed.
Vehicles crawled bumper-to-bumper on roads heading south from Beirut, the capital. For the people in them, elation, relief — and, for Hezbollah supporters, defiance — vied with grim knowledge: They might not have homes to return to, and the 60-day truce might not hold.
But it was not clear when the people of southern Lebanon could go back, as the Israeli military said it would not yet permit residents in an area that had been a Hezbollah stronghold, used to launch most of its attacks on Israel.
People did begin to return Wednesday to Hezbollah-controlled areas in and near Beirut that had been pummeled by Israeli air power, often to find large swaths reduced to rubble, tangled steel and broken glass. Smoke still rose from Israeli airstrikes that continued through the night until the ceasefire took hold at 4 a.m.
Under the agreement — mediated by the United States and France, and accepted by the governments of Israel and Lebanon — Israel will pull its military from Lebanon, while Hezbollah will move its fighters out of southern Lebanon. But the timing for those withdrawals remains uncertain, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said that Israel retains the right to strike if it sees hostile action by Hezbollah.
The ceasefire in Lebanon is intended to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon between the two forces, from the Israel-Lebanon border to the Litani River, with the Lebanese military, which has not been a party to the conflict, and a U.N. peacekeeping force sending their troops to the area.
President Joe Biden hailed the ceasefire as an opening to also end the related war in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel, though months of intensive diplomacy in that conflict have come up empty. Biden, with less than two months remaining in office, said on social media that the United States would “make another push” in the coming days for a Gaza ceasefire.
But on Tuesday night into Wednesday, Israel struck dozens of sites in Gaza that it said were Hamas military targets, killing at least 33 people and injuring 134 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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