US-Brokered Truce Brings Hope: Lebanese Families Return Amid Fragile Peace

BEIRUT – A tentative tranquility enveloped parts of Lebanon on Friday as a 10-day ceasefire, orchestrated by the United States, commenced between Israel and Hezbollah. This pause in hostilities encouraged thousands of families, previously displaced by the conflict, to start making their way back home. Nevertheless, their return was overshadowed by uncertainty, widespread destruction, and Israeli advisories against returning to certain areas in southern Lebanon.

As dawn broke, long lines of vehicles stretched for kilometers on the road leading southward to the battered Qasmiyeh bridge over the Litani River. This vital crossing connects the southern coastal city of Tyre to the northern regions. Cars, loaded with mattresses, suitcases, and other salvaged items, moved slowly through a single lane that had been hurriedly repaired after sustaining damage from an Israeli airstrike just the previous day.

The recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah forced more than a million people from their homes. Despite warnings from Lebanese authorities advising against immediate returns, many people began heading toward southern Lebanon shortly after the ceasefire was announced. By nightfall, the truce was generally holding.

In southern villages like Jibsheet, a steady trickle of residents returned to find their homes reduced to rubble. Streets were strewn with debris, including large concrete fragments, twisted metal shutters, and dangling electric wires.

“I feel free being back,” expressed 23-year-old Zainab Fahas. “But look, they destroyed everything—the square, the houses, the shops, everything.”

Many did not believe that their ordeal was really over.

“Israel doesn’t want peace,” said Ali Wahdan, 27, a medic walking on crutches over the rubble of the emergency services’ headquarters in Jibsheet. He was badly wounded in an Israeli airstrike that hit the building without warning during the first week of the war.

“I wish it were different,” he said. “But this war will continue.”

In the neighborhood of Haret Hreik in Beirut’s southern suburb, entire buildings had been reduced to rubble after weeks of intense Israeli strikes. Ahmad Lahham, 48, waved the yellow Hezbollah flag standing on a mountain of rubble that used to be his apartment building, which had also housed a branch of Hezbollah’s financial arm, Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

“We are at the service of the fighters,” said Lahham, pledging his loyalty to the group.

He praised Iran and said its pressure in its talks with the U.S. led to the truce, condemning Lebanon’s direct talks with Israel.

“Only the Iranians stood with us, no one else,” he said, calling Lebanon’s leaders “the leadership of shame.”

A local government official in Haret Hreik said Israel struck the neighborhood 62 times over the last six weeks.

“We’ve been able to clear up the rubble of the partially damaged buildings, but for those destroyed, we will need special equipment,” Sadek Slim, the neighborhood’s deputy mayor, told a press briefing.

The area was gridlocked with traffic, with people coming back to check on their homes and Hezbollah supporters zooming on scooters, waving the group’s flag.