HAIDAB, Lebanon — Families packed into cars with mattresses lashed to rooftops, many waving Hezbollah flags, streamed into southern Lebanon in the first hours of a tentative ceasefire early Friday, rushing home after six weeks of Israeli bombardment that has killed more than 2,100 people across the country.
Displaced civilians crowded roads leading back into regions that have been hammered in fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, hopeful they will get a respite but unsure of how stable the 10-day truce will be or whether Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group, will honor it.
Hezbollah, which attacked Israel in retaliation for the killing in late February of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has acknowledged the 10-day agreement was brokered in Washington between the Lebanese government and Israel. But the group was not a participant in the negotiations and has not committed to upholding the agreement.
President Donald Trump warned the group not derail the fragile ceasefire in a social media post early Friday: “I hope Hezbollah acts nicely and well during this important period of time,” Trump posted. “It will be [a] GREAT moment for them if they do. No more killing. Must finally have PEACE!”
Even amid the uncertainty, Lebanese residents expressed relief at even the prospect of quiet. Relief agencies and religious groups mobilized to aid families on their return to battered towns.
“Today is a day of love and peace since this is the first day of the ceasefire,” Cardinal Béchara Boutros, who was traveling with a Catholic team to deliver 30 tons of humanitarian aid, told The Washington Post at a stop in this small Christian town in south.
Along the roadside, vendors had set up to sell Hezbollah flags to passing cars. The group had also unfurled fresh banners and flags along the route south — a visible effort to project strength and claim the ceasefire as a victory, even as the terms of the truce remained bitterly contested.
The Trump administration brokered the Lebanon ceasefire to build momentum behind the broader U.S.-Iran ceasefire, which is set to expire in five days, and to nudge stalled negotiations, including over Iran’s nuclear program, toward a deal. The first round of talks in Islamabad ended last weekend without agreement after 21 hours, with both sides accusing the other of moving the goalposts.
Hendrix reported from London and George from Islamabad, Pakistan. Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
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