Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire: Displaced Lebanese return home as deal takes hold

Hundreds more Palestinians are fleeing from war-ravaged northern Gaza as Israel presses ahead with a weeks-old offensive against Hamas militants.

Many of those fleeing Wednesday had crowded onto donkey carts with their belongings in their arms. Others walked on foot, some holding the hands of their small children.

“We left, and here we are sitting, with no shelter or food, and we do not know where to go,” said Umm Saleh Al-Adham, one of the women who fled the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

She said Israeli troops separated the men from the women and allowed the latter to travel onward to Gaza City. “Here we are, sitting, waiting for God’s mercy,” she said.

The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group leaves the nearly 14-month war in Gaza unresolved. Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages and most of the population has been displaced inside the besieged and heavily destroyed territory.

Israel has filed an appeal with the International Criminal Court in a bid to halt its arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The court last week issued the arrest warrants, accusing Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes for actions during Israel’s war in Gaza.

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Both men have condemned the decision and accused the court of anti-Israeli bias and undermining Israel’s right to self-defense.

Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday it informed the ICC of “its intention to appeal to the court along with a demand to delay implementation of the arrest warrants.”

Later, it filed appeals to two decisions granting the court jurisdiction over the case. Israel is not a member of the ICC and says the court has no jurisdiction.

The actual warrants cannot be appealed or suspended, said Tom Dannenbaum, associate professor of international law at Tufts University.

“None of this challenges the substance of the warrants at this point in the process,” said Dannenbaum.

The court cannot make arrests on Israeli territory. But both men could be subject to arrest if they enter any of the court’s member states, which include allies like the U.K., France and Italy.
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This post has been updated with details and analysis

Israeli authorities say they seized a large cache of weapons originating in Iran and bound for Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

A joint statement from the military and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said the cache included rockets, explosives, mortar launchers, sniper rifles and other weapons. They released photos purporting to show the weapons.

The statement did not say where the seizure took place, and the military did not respond to a request for comment. The statement identified two units of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, one purportedly based in Syria, that it said were responsible for the smuggling, and named their commanders. It did not provide further evidence of Iran’s involvement.

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A woman mourns holding a portrait of her grandson, a Hezbollah fighter who was killed in the fighting with Israeli troops, as she waits for rescuers to recover his body from under the rubble of a destroyed house, background, in Ainata village, south Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A man walks in a destroyed neighborhood, in the town of Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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Lebanese men carry a dead body retrieved from under the rubble of a destroyed house in Ainata village, southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A woman checks her mobile phone, as she passes next of a destroyed mosque that was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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In the southern Lebanon border villages of Bint Jbeil and Ainata, where fierce fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants took place, rescuers used excavators to search for bodies under the rubble.

A woman in Ainata wrapped in black cried as she held a portrait her grandson, a Hezbollah fighter, who was killed in the fighting, as she waits for rescuers to recover his body from a destroyed home.

The smell of death filled the air and several dead bodies could be seen inside houses and between trees. In the town of Kfar Hammam, rescuers recovered four bodies, according to Lebanese state media.

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser is pushing back on the incoming Donald Trump administration for taking credit for the Lebanon ceasefire coming together.

“I would just point out that you know you’ve done a really good thing when other people take credit for it,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a CNN interview on Wednesday.

The comments came after Trump’s pick to serve as his national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz, in a posting on X on Tuesday said his boss is the reason the two sides came reached the long-sought after agreement.

“Everyone is coming to the table because of President Trump,” Waltz noted.

Sullivan said the deal came together because Israel achieved its military objectives in Lebanon and the stakeholders in Lebanon didn’t want war anymore. He also credited the “relentless American diplomacy” of Biden and White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein.

Sullivan also confirmed that he had briefed Waltz on the negotiations as they unfolded.

Israel says its troops arrested four Hezbollah operatives, including a local commander, when they entered what it described as a restricted area in southern Lebanon.

The two sides entered into a ceasefire early Wednesday that appears to be holding, but Israel has said it will strike the militant group in response to any violations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the arrests in a statement. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

The statement said Israeli troops have been ordered to prevent people from returning to villages near the border, where the forces are still deployed.

The ceasefire agreement gives Israel and Hezbollah militants 60 days to withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon near the border. Thousands of Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers will patrol the area, and an international committee will monitor compliance.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham says Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should lead efforts to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Israel’s nearly 14-month offensive has devastated large parts of Gaza and displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people. With the war still raging, Israel has not announced a clear postwar plan. But reconstruction is expected to take years and cost billions of dollars.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Graham said Wednesday that eventually someone will have to rebuild Gaza and “create an entity in the Palestinian world that would live in peace with Israel.”

“The only group that I think has a chance of doing that is the Arab world, led by the (Saudi) Crown Prince and the UAE,” he said.

Graham also said he would work with the incoming Trump administration to impose sanctions against “any country” that has targeted Israel in the International Criminal Court. The court last week issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity for actions in the Gaza war.

The Lebanese army said it was moving additional troops into the country’s south on Wednesday to extend state authority in coordination with the U.N. peacekeeping mission there.

“The concerned military units are moving from several areas to the South Litani Sector, where they will be stationed in the locations designated for them,” the Lebanese military said in its first statement since the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire went into effect.

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Under the ceasefire deal, Israeli troops would pull out of Lebanon and Hezbollah is required to move its forces north of the Litani River, which in some places is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border.

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

The Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines during the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah, although dozens of its soldiers have been killed.

Beside the graves of Hezbollah fighters in eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek region, families with tears in their eyes paid respects to the dead and celebratory gunshots could be heard in the background Wednesday, the first day of a ceasefire between the militant group and Israel.

“The resistance (Hezbollah) will stay to defend Lebanon,” Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Mokdad told reporters while visiting the graves. “We tell the enemy that the martyrs thwarted their plans for the Middle East.”

Several other Hezbollah members of parliament were present. In addition to being an armed group, Hezbollah is also a political party and provides extensive social services.

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Israeli strikes on two schools turned shelters in Gaza City killed 11 people, including four children, hospital officials said.

One strike hit the Tabeen School, killing nine, and another targeted Al-Hureyah School, leaving two dead. Both were sheltering hundreds of displaced people.

The Israeli military said it struck Mumin Al-Jabari, a senior fighter with Hamas’ sniper unit. It said he had operated in a room inside the Tabeen School, without providing evidence. The strike on Al-Hureyah School targeted Hamas militants hiding among civilians, it said, also without providing evidence.

The military said Al-Jabari carried out attacks against Israeli troops in Gaza and had stored weapons in the room he was operating from.

At Al-Ahli Hospital, Saeed Abu Salah, who sought shelter in Tabeen School, said the airstrike killed his daughter and granddaughter. He had already lost four of his children since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, including two whose bodies were still under rubble.

“For the millionth time, the Israeli occupation commits crimes against innocent civilians,” he said. Abu Salah held his granddaughter wrapped in a white shroud, while a crying mother nearby held the body of her dead child in her arms.

Associated Press footage on Wednesday showed the collapsed roof at the Tabeen School. Dozens gathered outside, some using equipment and bare hands to pull out bodies from under the rubble. One man carried a dead child covered in a blanket.

International aid groups welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah and urge donors to provide funding to help rebuild parts of Lebanon and assist the displaced.

The aid groups are concerned about the aftershocks of the war on Lebanon’s already struggling economy. With more than 1.2 million people displaced, they warned that the damage would leave many struggling and without homes.

More than 100,000 homes have been either partially or fully destroyed across southern Lebanon, Bekaa and Beirut, the International Rescue Committee said.

Mercy Corps said that half of Lebanon’s population now lives below the poverty line. It called on donors to fulfill pledges to support immediate humanitarian efforts and the long-term recovery.

“There will undoubtedly be a great deal of grief and trauma. Many will have no homes to return to, no schools for their children, and livelihoods destroyed,” Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General Jan Egeland said.

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Among the Lebanese hoping to return home following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah are thousands who had fled the war to Syria.

Families with hastily packed belongings on Wednesday crossed under heavy rain from Syria into eastern Lebanon. The road, heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes, is under repair.

Mariam Mawla, from Bazouria in southern Lebanon, was thrilled to be returning home after two months in Syrian capital Damascus. As she waited in traffic at the crossing, she told The Associated Press that she hoped to find her house intact.

“I heard that there might be some damage, but no matter what, we thank God that we are returning home,” Mawla said.

France says it “intends to continue to work in close collaboration” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite the arrest warrant issued for him by the world’s top war-crimes court.

Since the International Criminal Court issued warrants last week, French officials have replied vaguely to questions about whether France would arrest Netanyahu should he visit the country.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier told parliament this week that France would “rigorously” respect its obligations according to international law. The position was echoed by France’s foreign minister in a broadcast interview Wednesday morning.

But in a subsequent statement, the French Foreign Ministry argued that Netanyahu and others affected by the court warrants benefit from immunity because Israel is not a member of the court. It said this would be “taken into consideration if the ICC was to ask us for their arrest and handing over.”

The statement cited “the historic friendship that links France and Israel” and described them as “two democracies committed to the rule of law and respect for professional and independent justice.”

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As a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to hold in Lebanon, fighting raged on in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 33 bodies had been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll in the nearly 14-month-long war to 44,282. The Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says more than half of the dead are women and children.

The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Hamas sites in hard-hit northern Gaza, including weapons storage facilities and military structures. It said it warned civilians to evacuate the area beforehand. The military has battled for weeks a resurgence of Hamas in the area, which was an early target of Israel’s offensive.

The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire has no direct bearing on the conflict in Gaza, where international mediators have struggled to secure a truce.

Israeli troops in southern Lebanon opened fire at several vehicles approaching a restricted area, an Israeli security official said.

There were no casualties reported. The official said Wednesday that Israeli forces remained in their positions hours after a ceasefire with Hezbollah took place and will only gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon.

The official said Israeli soldiers were responding to an immediate threat when they opened fire earlier Wednesday and that Israel was prepared to do so again if troops were at risk.

“We will fire when our forces are threatened,” the official said on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules. He said non-immediate threats would be reported to the international monitoring committee, but that if no action is taken, “we will enforce it.”

An Israeli security official says Israeli forces remain in their positions hours after a ceasefire took place and will only gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon.

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The official, speaking Wednesday on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules, would not say when troops would begin the withdrawal but said it would be completed during the 60-day period laid out in the ceasefire agreement.

He said the pace of the withdrawal and the scheduled return of Lebanese civilians to their homes would depend on whether the deal is implemented and enforced by all sides.

“We need to see the mechanism is working,” he said. “It’s a gradual agreement. It’s a gradual withdrawal.”

Hamas says it’s ready to cooperate with any effort to bring about a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah reached a truce to end months of fighting.

The deal does not address the war in Gaza. International mediators have repeatedly failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a deal that would end the brutal, 13-month-long war.

In a statement, Hamas repeated it would seek the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced Palestinians and a “real and complete prisoner exchange deal.”

Israel has refused to commit to ending the war under any ceasefire deal and some members of the Israeli government have balked over freeing large number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the roughly 100 hostages still held by militants in Gaza.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday he hoped for a renewed international push for negotiations in coming days.

Lebanon’s caretaker government on Wednesday approved a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between the militant Hezbollah group and Israel.

The move was largely a formality but also signaled the government’s commitment to its part in the deal, including deploying Lebanese soldiers along the border with Israel and cooperating with United Nations peacekeepers.

According to a copy of the ceasefire agreement provided by the Lebanese government, the Lebanese military would gradually deploy in the south and dismantle unauthorized military infrastructure and weapons production facilities.

The United States and France, in addition to UNIFIL peacekeepers, will monitor violations and support the process.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed relief over the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and called on both sides to stick to the agreement.

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“Finally, Hezbollah and Israel have agreed on a ceasefire in Lebanon, brokered by our partners USA and France,” Scholz wrote Wednesday on X.

“It is important that everyone sticks to what has been agreed, so that people on both sides of the border can live in safety again.”

Germany is a staunch ally of Israel, but at the same time home to a Lebanese immigrant community of more than 100,000.

The speaker of Lebanon’s parliament called for another effort to fill the country’s long-vacant presidency just hours after a ceasefire to halt hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel went into effect.

Lebanon has been without a president since October 2022, as its deeply divided parliament has been unable to elect a new head of state. The last effort to elect a president was more than a year ago.

Speaker Nabih Berri called for political parties to come together to elect a president “who unites rather than divides.”

“I call upon you because a moment of truth in which we must unite for the sake of Lebanon has arrived,” Berri said in a televised address.

“This is a test for how we can save Lebanon. How we can build it and how we can bring back life for its constitutional institutions.”

The war compounded Lebanon’s economic troubles and worsened tensions between political groups allied and opposed to Hezbollah.

Berri spearheaded Lebanon’s negotiation efforts for a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah. He’s a top Shiite politician and a key ally of Hezbollah.

One of the most powerful Iran-backed factions in Iraq said it would continue its operations in support of Gaza despite the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

Iraqi militias have repeatedly launched attacks on Israel from Iraq in the nearly 14 months since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.

In a statement, the Kataib Hezbollah group said that the ceasefire would not have been possible without the “resilience of Hezbollah fighters and the failure of the Zionists to achieve their objectives, making the decision solely Lebanese.”

The group said that a pause by one member of the so-called Axis of Resistance, which includes Iran-backed groups from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, would not undermine the broader “unity of fronts” strategy.

The militia also said the U.S. had been Israel’s partner “in all acts of betrayal, killing, destruction and displacement,” and said it “will eventually have to pay for its actions.”

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Mohammed Kaafarani has lived through multiple conflicts with Israel. But he says the past two months were the worst of them all.

“They were a nasty and ugly 60 days,” said Kaafarani, 59, who was displaced from the Lebanese village of Bidias, near the southern port city of Tyre.

Thousands of displaced people poured into the city Wednesday after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect.

Kaafarani said the latest war was the most difficult because the bombardment was so intense. “We reached a point where there was no place to hide. Even buildings were destroyed.”

He said Tyre was left almost empty as most of its residents fled.

Kaafarani said he hopes his children and grandchildren will have a better future without wars because “our generation suffered and is still suffering.”

“The last two months were way too long,” said Kaafarani, whose home was badly damaged in the fighting. He vowed to fix it and continue on with life.

Some people in Israel who have been displaced by fighting with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah say the ceasefire deal doesn’t make them feel secure enough to go home.

Some 50,000 people have been displaced from a string of cities, towns and villages along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Those communities have been pummeled by Hezbollah rocket and drone fire for 13 months, with dozens of houses damaged and in need of rebuilding or rehabilitation.

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Noy Friedman, who was displaced from the town of Shlomi to the city of Haifa, said she wouldn’t feel safe in her hometown.

“I am also not ready for my family to return to Shlomi,” said Friedman.

Many displaced Israelis have been living in hotels since the fighting began in Oct. 2023 or have tried to reestablish their lives in new areas far from the fighting.

Returning could take months because of the damage caused to the communities, but also because of the fears many of the displaced still feel.

On a cold, rainy Wednesday morning, the hard-hit Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona was quiet. A handful of people milled about, inspecting damage from rocket attacks, including to the roof of a bus.

The town’s shopping mall, which had been hit before, appeared to have new damage. A rocket was seen stuck in the ground next to an apartment building.

“I am against the ceasefire,” said Eliyahu Maman, a Kiryat Shmona resident displaced to Haifa who feared Hezbollah could still attack from southern Lebanon. “I am not ready to return to Kiryat Shmona.”

Jordan on Wednesday welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, saying it should be followed by an international effort to wind down the war in Gaza.

In a statement, Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the ceasefire “an important step.” But it said “Israeli aggression on Gaza” must be stopped.
Jordan expressed support for Lebanon and stressed the importance of fully implementing the ceasefire.

Jordan is a close Western ally that made peace with Israel in 1994. But Israel’s devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, has strained relations. The country has a large Palestinian population which has demonstrated regularly against the war in Gaza.

Turkey welcomed the ceasefire reached between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, expressing hope that it would lead to a lasting truce.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also called on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to force it to “strictly comply with the ceasefire and compensate for the damage it has caused in Lebanon.”

The ministry also urged the establishment of “permanent and comprehensive” ceasefire in Gaza, calling on Israel to “end its aggressive policies.”

Palestinians said Wednesday they hoped there would be a ceasefire in Gaza now that Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah agreed to a truce.

But some feared that Israel would be more heavy handed with Gaza now that its forces were freed up from the fighting against Hezbollah.

“The situation will be worse, because the pressure will be more on Gaza,” said Mamdouh Yonis, a man currently living in Khan Younis after being displaced from the southern city of Rafah, told The Associated Press.

Palestinians in Gaza are desperately waiting for a ceasefire agreement that would end the war between Hamas and Israel. It’s already killed over 44,000 people according to local authorities, who don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.

The war was sparked when Hamas raided southern Israel in Oct. 2023, killing 1,200 and kidnapping 250, about 100 of whom remain in Gaza.

International mediation efforts meant to clinch a deal have faltered repeatedly, and the war is now in its 14th month with no end in sight.

“They agree to a ceasefire in one place and not in the other? Have mercy on the children, the elderly and the women. We are sitting in tents and now it is winter,” said Ahlam Abu Shalabi, a woman displaced from Gaza City.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that its forces opened fire in Lebanon on a number of cars that approached an area it said was restricted, as a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to take hold.

The military said the vehicles drove away. It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries as a result.

The Israeli military has warned residents of previously evacuated areas of Lebanon that had been evacuated, but displaced people have been streaming south to their homes.

The military said soldiers remained in position in southern Lebanon and that the air force was ready to act if needed. It said Israel’s aerial defense array was also at the ready for any ceasefire violations.

France’s foreign minister underlined his country’s role in brokering an agreement that ended fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group alongside the U.S., saying the deal wouldn’t have been possible without France’s special relationship with its former protectorate.

“It’s a success for French diplomacy and we can be proud,” said the minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking hours after the ceasefire went into effect Wednesday.

“It is true that the United States have a privileged relationship with Israel. But with Lebanon, it’s France that has very old ties, very close ties,” the minister added. “It would not have been possible to envisage a ceasefire in Lebanon without France being involved on the front line.”

France will be involved in monitoring the ceasefire, Barrot noted, with 700 French soldiers deployed as part of the 10,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, that has been patrolling the border area between Lebanon and Israel for nearly 50 years.

The minister said France will also work to strengthen Lebanese troops that will deploy in the south of the country as part of the ceasefire, although he didn’t specify what that might include.

The Lebanese military asked displaced people returning to southern Lebanon to avoid frontline villages and towns near the border where the Israeli military is still present until the troops withdraw.

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Thousands of people have been returning to other previously evacuated areas in south Lebanon in defiance of an Israeli warning to avoid all previously evacuated areas. Many of those areas were hit by strikes just hours before the ceasefire took effect.

On the highway linking Beirut with south Lebanon, thousands of people drove south with their belongings and mattresses tied on top of their cars.

Traffic was gridlocked at the northern entrance of the port city of Sidon.

Some cars had posters on their windshields showing fallen Hezbollah fighters or the group’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli strike.

Iran welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Tehran’s main militant partner in the Mideast.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei praised the ceasefire in a statement Wednesday morning.

Baghaei said that Iran still sought a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. But like Hezbollah, it’s dropped the demand that a ceasefire also take place at the same time in the Gaza Strip.

He also called for the International Criminal Court to try the “criminals of the occupying regime,” referring to Israel. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former defense minister.

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Displaced people started returning to the coastal city of Tyre on motorcycles and in cars early Wednesday, defying an Israeli military warning to stay away from previously evacuated areas.

Ahmad Husseini said returning to southern Lebanon was an “indescribable feeling” and praised Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, who led Lebanon’s negotiations with Washington. “He made us and everyone proud.”

Husseini, who earlier fled a town near the coastal city, spoke to The Associated Press while in his car with family members.

Meanwhile, sporadic celebratory gunfire can be heard at a main roundabout in the city, as people returning honked the horns of cars — some piled with mattresses — and residents cheered.

A couple of men shouted slogans praising slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September.

Hussein Sweidan said he sees the ceasefire as a victory for Hezbollah. “This is a moment of victory, pride and honor for us, the Shia sect, and for all of Lebanon,” he said.

As dawn broke in Beirut, plumes of smoke were visible rising from places hit by Israeli strikes before the ceasefire took effect at 4 a.m.

Residents of Lebanon’s capital and its southern suburbs endured the most intense day of strikes since the war began on Tuesday.

As the ceasefire went into effect early Wednesday, much of Lebanon was quiet for the first time since late September, following weeks of intense overnight strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon.

Some celebratory gunshots could be heard in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, battered over the past two months.

Israel’s Arabic military spokesperson Avichay Adraee has warned displaced Lebanese not to return to their villages in southern Lebanon, but some videos circulating on social media show displaced Lebanese defying these calls and returning to villages in the south near the coastal city of Tyre.

Israeli troops are still present in parts of southern Lebanon after Israel launched a ground invasion in October.

Lebanese have also been displaced from other parts of the country, notably the southern Beirut suburbs and the eastern Bekaa province. It’s unclear how long it will take cash-strapped Lebanon to rebuild these bombarded neighborhoods.

The war has displaced some 1.2 million people, according to the Lebanese government.

As the ceasefire took effect early Wednesday, Israel’s military warned people with homes in areas of south Lebanon that it ordered evacuated to stay away for now.

Israeli military spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee issued the warning on the social platform X.

“You are prohibited from heading towards the villages that the IDF has ordered to be evacuated or towards IDF forces in the area,” Adraee wrote, using an acronym for the Israeli military. “For your safety and the safety of your family members, refrain from moving to the area.”

There were no immediate signs of renewed fighting as the ceasefire took hold early Wednesday morning.

The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants has begun as a region on edge wonders whether it will hold.

The ceasefire 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. An international panel led by the United States will monitor compliance.

Israel has said it will attack if Hezbollah breaks the ceasefire agreement.

An Israeli airstrike that killed three journalists and wounded others in Lebanon last month was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime, an international human rights group said Monday.

The Oct. 25 airstrike killed three journalists as they slept at a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon in one of the deadliest attacks on the media since the Israel-Hezbollah war began 13 months ago.

Eleven other journalists have been killed and eight wounded since then, Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said.

Human Rights Watch determined that Israeli forces carried out the Oct. 25 attack using an air-dropped bomb equipped with a U.S.-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, guidance kit.

The group said the U.S. government should suspend weapons transfers to Israel because of the military’s repeated “unlawful attacks on civilians, for which U.S. officials may be complicit in war crimes.”

▶ Read more about the deadly Israeli airstrike

In 2000, Israel withdrew its forces from most of southern Lebanon along a U.N.-demarcated “Blue Line” that separated the two countries and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, which most of the world considers occupied Syrian territory. U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, increased their presence along the line of withdrawal.

Resolution 1701 was supposed to complete Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and ensure Hezbollah would move north of the Litani River, keeping the area exclusively under the Lebanese military and U.N. peacekeepers.

The goal was long-term security, with land borders eventually demarcated to resolve territorial disputes. The resolution also reaffirmed previous ones that called for the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon — Hezbollah among them.

“It was made for a certain situation and context,” Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese army general, told The Associated Press. “But as time goes on, the essence of the resolution begins to hollow.”

▶ Read more about U.N. Resolution 1701

The ceasefire starts early Wednesday and calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting. It would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border. But implementation remains a major question mark.

Outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Hamra, dozens of people sought refuge, hoping the hospital would not be targeted. Among them was Rima Abdkhaluk, who sat on a sidewalk with a backpack at her side.

“I was at home having lunch when I received a call from (relatives) in Syria telling me they were about to hit Hamra,” she said.

She quickly packed her belongings and left with her mother. She convinced the hospital’s staff to allow her mother inside while she waited outside on a piece of cardboard.

Israeli jets struck Beirut’s Mar Elias neighborhood as Abdkhaluk was speaking to The Associated Press. She held her hands tightly together and prayed. “I just need to see where they hit,” she started saying frantically.

Asked about the expected ceasefire, Abdkhaluk was skeptical. “I don’t believe it. Israel can’t be trusted.”

Ahmad Khateeb, a musician and artist who performs in a renowned theater in Beirut’s Hamra neighborhood, fled to the city’s seaside promenade with seven members of his family after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings for four targets in central Beirut, including one close to his area.

“This is the first time this area in Ras Beirut, Hamra, has received such a threat. This neighborhood has historically been a refuge for everyone,” Khateeb told The Associated Press.

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French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah marked a “new page” for Lebanon and called on its leaders to elect a president “without delay.”

In a video message on X, Macron said restoring Lebanon’s sovereignty depends on ending the presidential vacuum.

“It is the responsibility of Lebanese authorities and all those in senior political roles,” he said.

More than 3,500 people in Lebanon have been killed, many of them civilians. More than 70 have been killed in Israel, over 40 of them civilians. In addition, over 50 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive. From entire Lebanese villages demolished to thousands of acres of Israeli farmland burned by Hezbollah rocket fire, the conflict has wreaked destruction on both sides of the border.

Here’s a look at the conflict by the numbers:

The Health Ministry in Lebanon says 18 more people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across the country, bringing the total death toll on Tuesday to at least 42 people.

Eleven people were killed by Israeli bombing in eastern Lebanon, four were killed in strikes on border crossings between northern Lebanon and Syria, and three people were killed in southern Lebanon, the Health Ministry said early Wednesday.

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In the hours before a ceasefire with Hezbollah takes effect, Israel has launched its most intense wave of strikes on the capital Beirut and its southern suburbs since the start of the conflict. Strikes have targeted what Israel said were Hezbollah-related targets in several other parts of the country as well.

Israel’s military issued a record number of evacuation warnings, sending people fleeing from their homes.

Hezbollah has also fired rockets into Israel on Tuesday, triggering air raid sirens across the country’s north.

A Hezbollah leader said the group’s support for the deal hinged on clarity that Israel would not renew its attacks.

“After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Qatari satellite news network Al Jazeera.

“We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state” of Lebanon, he said.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Tuesday that Israel’s security concerns had been addressed in the deal also brokered by France.