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November 27, 2024 | 05:32 pm
TEMPO.CO, Beirut - A ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah came into effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the U.S. and France, a rare victory for diplomacy in a region wracked by two wars for over a year.
Lebanon's army, tasked with helping to ensure the ceasefire holds, said it was preparing to deploy to the south of the country. The military asked that residents of border villages delay returning home until the Israeli military, which has waged war against Iran-backed Hezbollah on several occasions and pushed around 6 km (4 miles) into Lebanon, withdraws.
While the ceasefire largely held on Wednesday morning, Israel said it identified Hezbollah operatives returning to areas near the border and had opened fire to prevent them from coming closer.
The agreement, which promises to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, is a major achievement for the U.S. in the waning days of President Joe Biden's administration.
The deal is likely to enable Israel to focus more closely on the conflict in shattered Gaza, where it has vowed to destroy its long-time enemy the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli communities.
"Force must give way to dialogue and negotiation. This has been achieved in Lebanon, and it must happen as soon as possible in the Gaza Strip," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Info radio.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the group "appreciates" Lebanon's right to reach an agreement that protects its people, and hopes for a deal to end the Gaza war.
Egypt, which along with the United States and Qatar has tried unsuccessfully to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza, welcomed the Lebanon truce.
Cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases and even furniture streamed through the southern port city of Tyre, which was heavily bombed in the final days before the ceasefire, heading south. Fighting had escalated over the past two months, forcing hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes.
Israel said its military aim had been to ensure the safe return of about 60,000 Israelis who fled from their communities along the northern border when Hezbollah started firing rockets at them in support of Hamas in Gaza.
In Lebanon, some cars flew national flags, others honked, and one woman could be seen flashing the victory sign with her fingers as people started to return to homes they had fled.
Many of the villages the people were likely returning to have been destroyed. But displaced families renting out alternative housing hoped to avoid paying another month of rent, some of them told Reuters.
Hussam Arrout, a father of four who said he was displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs but originally from the southern border village of Mays al-Jabal, said he was itching to return to his ancestral home.
"The Israelis haven't withdrawn in full, they're still on the edge. So we decided to wait until the army announces we can go in. Then we'll turn the cars on immediately and go to the village," he said.
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