Roads black with people. As soon as the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect, thousands of Lebanese persecuted by hostilities packed their bags this Wednesday, January 27, to return home.
Displaced residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Plain, Hezbollah strongholds in the south of the country, immediately headed home without waiting for fire from the Lebanese army.
Overloaded cars and vans, with mattresses tied to the roof, formed long lines on the southern axis of the country, in an often cheerful atmosphere. Traffic jams quickly formed at the entrance to the main southern cities: Sidon, Nabatieh, Zahle and Tyre.
Hezbollah flags
In the north, refugee camps are slowly emptying. “I return to my town. God took pity on us. I hope we have learned the lesson of this life and this war,” confesses a man in Ghaziyeh.
Despite the relief of seeing the war end, some wipe away tears.
“I made friends here. Now we have to go back to the south, I don’t want to leave them,” laments a young woman from Sidon.
The southern suburbs of Beirut, still bombed at dawn on Wednesday, are filled with Hezbollah supporters brandishing the pro-Iran party’s yellow flag or portraits of their leader assassinated in late September by Israel. Hassan Nasrallahor firing celebratory shots into the air.
Despite the ceasefire, the return of residents to southern Lebanon is not without risks. The Israeli army has warned residents of the region not to approach the positions where it is deployed, nor the towns from which it has ordered the evacuation. He reported several skirmishes in the morning, indicating that he had fired at vehicles transporting “suspects.”
The Lebanese army, for its part, indicated that it had “begun to reinforce its presence” in the south of the country, which the IDF and Hezbollah must leave under the terms of the truce agreement.
Source: BFM TV
