The woman’s face was contorted in grief. “My son,” she wailed out the window of the car. “My son, we are going home without you.”
She was in a vehicle packed with family members: tears streamed down the faces of a young girl and boy in the front seat.
Hours after a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah came into force, the roads towards southern Lebanon, and Beirut’s southern suburbs, were packed with cars, with mattresses piled on the roofs of many. People displaced by war were going home: even if they didn’t know whether their homes remained standing, even if they didn’t know how they could survive once they got there.
Parts of Beirut’s hard-hit southern suburbs were still smoking as cars beeped their horns in celebration, welcoming the throng of returnees. A man stood in the road’s centre, handing out sweets. Celebratory gunfire punctured the air and wounded at least one person.
An entrepreneurial local had begun selling yellow Hizbullah flags. Men and women on motorbikes rode laps of the area, waving flags or holding up posters of assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah. Children hung out of car windows, making victory signs with two fingers.
This was a day of celebration, but also a day to discover, and come to terms with, the extent of what they had lost.
A family rummaged through the remains of a 10-floor building. They had lived on the top floor, they said, so they expected to find some belongings and they did, folding grimy clothes into bags they were carrying.
[ Sally Hayden: 'People hope the fire will stop'Opens in new window ]
One of the former residents, a 29-year-old teacher, watched on, her young nephew in her arms. Four of her students had been killed in the war. “There will be no justice, only God,” she said, sadly. She didn’t know why Israel targeted her home. “It was only civilian. It’s a crime, only a crime.”
Despite the danger, she had risked visiting the site twice previously. “Our memories,” she tried to explain before trailing off.
Her father interjected to say that they welcomed the ceasefire, but it will only persist if Israel and the US – which supplies Israel with weapons – respect it.
The ceasefire – which took effect at 4am on Wednesday – will last for an initial period of 60 days. It requires Hizbullah to move its heavy weaponry north of the Litani river, about 40km away from the Israeli border, while Israeli forces will be required to withdraw from Lebanese territory completely. The Lebanese military and Unifil peacekeeping forces will play a key role in guarding and monitoring the area in between, with additional supervision by a multinational committee.
For Lebanese citizens returning home, there are concerns about unexploded ordnance: soldiers were handing out warning leaflets to cars passing checkpoints south of Beirut on Wednesday morning.
Later, the Israeli military announced a curfew, telling Lebanese people not to move south of the Litani river between 5pm Wednesday and 7am Thursday. In a statement, the Israeli military also said it had fired at “a vehicle with several suspects in a zone prohibited for movement in Lebanese territory”.
At least 3,823 people died in Lebanon amid a conflict that began in October 2023 but massively escalated in September, when Israel launched an intense aerial campaign across much of the country. Among the dead were 717 women and 243 children, according to figures from Lebanon’s health ministry. More than 130 people were killed on the Israeli side, according to the Associated Press – the majority of whom are believed to have been soldiers.
Israeli officials repeatedly said they were fighting a war against Hizbullah, not the Lebanese people, but the impact on civilians was immeasurable. More than 1.2 million people were displaced, according to authorities, while more than 13,500 air strikes – according to a Lebanese toll – saw formerly populated areas pounded and 37 villages completely “erased”, as EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday.
There have been repeated allegations of war crimes by Israel, including the targeting of medics, journalists and other civilians, as well as civilian infrastructure. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is already wanted by the International Criminal Court for his alleged involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, charges his office has condemned as “anti-Semitic”.
On Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry issued a statement extending “greetings and thanks” to the country’s health workers, “who did not hold back their lives” during the war. At least 222 died, the statement said, “most of whom were from the ambulance teams that showed unparalleled courage”.
The lead up to Wednesday’s US-brokered ceasefire saw an unprecedented number of evacuation warnings and Israeli attacks across greater Beirut, including strikes in areas not previously targeted.
Across the road from a new mass of rubble, a young man gazed at his blackened apartment block. He evacuated this week, he said, and now he needed someone to assess whether the building was safe to enter again.
A 60-year-old from Beirut’s southern suburbs, who did not want to be named, said his family would move back home that very day. “We have no glass, no windows, no doors but we can live,” he said. “Not like other people.”
[ Mark Weiss in Jerusalem: Netanyahu has every reason to avoid a Gaza ceasefireOpens in new window ]
[ Hizbullah withdrawal will not erase its presence in south LebanonOpens in new window ]
He said he is tired of war, after a life where catastrophes and crises have built up on one another. There may be peace, but forgiveness, he added, would take much longer. “We need time, maybe five, six generations.”
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