On day one, Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire appears to hold
Lebanese civilians are beginning to return to their homes in the south, on the first day of a ceasefire that could put an end to 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The truce, which came into effect at 4am local time on Wednesday, followed intense bombing of Beirut and south Lebanon by Israel, with airstrikes continuing after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech in support of the deal.
Under the reported terms of the US- and France-brokered ceasefire, Israel will withdraw from south Lebanon over the next 60 days, as Hezbollah leaves the part of south Lebanon between the Blue Line – the de facto Lebanon-Israel border – and the Litani River. Lebanese troops will replace Hezbollah in the south alongside an existing UN peacekeeping force, which will remain in the south, while a US-led task force will reportedly oversee the truce’s implementation.
The agreement is based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
The UN estimates that nearly 900,000 people have been forcibly displaced by the violence (other estimates put the number closer to 1.2 million). Most people fled after Israel drastically escalated the violence in September, by remotely detonating pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members. Its bombings, which it has said targeted Hezbollah, have destroyed homes and hospitals and killed more than 3,823 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry’s latest toll. Many civilians are among the dead.
Many people now driving home to the south have been gone for months, some staying in shelters, others with friends, family, or even on the street. Entire villages have been destroyed, and many people are likely returning to rubble.
The experience of displacement has changed over the course of the war, and has varied depending on religion, class, nationality, and sexual and gender identity. Here’s one personal account of what it was like to leave south Lebanon as the bombing intensified.
