Category Archives: Lebanon

‘Why would we wait?’: Lebanon starts to rebuild as ceasefire takes effect

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Residents of Nabatieh say they do not expect the government to help and have set to work clearing the rubble

For two months, the only sounds in Nabatieh were the buzzing of an Israeli drone overhead and the dull thump of distant airstrikes. The day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect, the drone was gone and southern Lebanon’s second largest city was filled with the sound of hammering and the clang of excavator buckets lifting rubble from blocked streets.

“We started repairs this morning, why would we wait? We have to stand on our own two feet,” said Wafiq Jaber, the owner of al-Sharq sweet shop in Nabatieh, on Thursday. He had watched six weeks earlier on his wifi-enabled cameras as Israeli bombs fell on one building after another until suddenly the footage cut and he knew his shop had been hit.

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Israel says air force struck Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon; curfews announced amid uneasy ceasefire – as it happened

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My colleagues, Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem, and Oliver Holmes have produced this explainer on what the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire are. You can read more at the link below:

Here is a video report on families returning to homes in Lebanon and northern Israel after the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire took effect:

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Hezbollah keeping ‘hands on trigger’ amid fragile ceasefire with Israel

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Lebanese given conflicting information about whether they can return home, as Israeli army strikes cars and areas along boundary

Hezbollah has vowed to continue resisting Israel and is monitoring its army’s withdrawal from south Lebanon “with their hands on the trigger”, said the militia in its first comments since a ceasefire went into effect on Wednesday.

The Iran-allied Shia group did not directly mention the truce, but said its fighters “remain fully equipped to deal with the aspirations and assaults of the Israeli enemy”. Hezbollah also remained committed to the Palestinian cause, said the statement from its operations centre late on Wednesday.

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Thursday briefing: The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire brings respite – but for how long, and what comes next?

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In today’s newsletter: Behind the celebratory scenes on the streets of Beirut lies a battered, divided country teetering on the brink of becoming a failed state

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Good morning. At 4am local time on Wednesday, a ceasefire began between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. By that time, some displaced residents of Lebanon’s devastated south were already on their way back, many of them wondering as they travelled whether the homes they had fled were still there.

The pause in hostilities has been broadly welcomed in Lebanon, Israel and beyond, both for those who have been exiled on either side of the border and as a step towards regional stability. There are even some optimistic claims that it might help bring about a ceasefire in Gaza. But as the Lebanon ceasefire begins, a formidable task remains: the reconstruction of a shattered region of a country that is perilously close to being a failed state.

Assisted dying | The former president of the supreme court, who ruled on the most high-profile assisted dying cases, has declared his support for the law change. David Neuberger’s intervention came as MPs backing the bill say they believe they have the numbers for Friday’s historic vote to pass.

UK news | Police believe Mohamed Al Fayed may have raped and abused more than 111 women over nearly four decades, with his youngest victim said to have been 13 years old. The Metropolitan police said that five unnamed individuals were being investigated for facilitating the offences.

Ukraine | Ukraine’s power infrastructure was “under massive enemy attack” on Thursday, the country’s energy minister said, after a nationwide air raid alert was declared due to incoming missiles.

Weather | The third named storm of the autumn, Conall, has brought more disruption to the UK, with trains cancelled in parts of southern England on Wednesday and the Met Office warning of delays on roads and potential power cuts.

Trade | Canada’s federal government and the premiers of the 10 provinces have agreed to work together against a threat by US president-elect Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian imports. Possible retaliatory measures are under consideration after Trump said one of his first executive orders would be a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico.

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Thousands return to southern Lebanon amid uneasy ceasefire

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Displaced people make their way home despite volatile situation and warnings from Israeli military

Thousands of people displaced from war-torn southern Lebanon have begun returning home after a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday, amid fears on both sides of the border about whether the truce would hold.

Israel heavily bombed the capital, Beirut, and the south of the country throughout Tuesday, killing 42 people, until the truce began at 4am local time, while Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, triggering air raid sirens.

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Biden administration claims win with Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire – but will it hold?

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Peace is shaky at best, as Israel will still strike targets in Lebanon and a power transition looms in the US

The Biden administration has claimed the long-awaited ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel as a diplomatic triumph achieved under tremendous pressure during a lame-duck period with a hostile Donald Trump administration waiting in the wings.

Speaking from a lectern in the Rose Garden of the White House, Joe Biden called the result “historic” and said that it “reminds us that peace is possible”. It would return civilians to their homes, he said, and had “determined this conflict will not be just another cycle of violence”.

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Israel’s ceasefire with Lebanon makes peace in Gaza ever less likely

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Joe Biden may have revived diplomatic efforts, but after compromising in Lebanon, Netanyahu has even less leeway in Gaza

Joe Biden has revived diplomatic efforts to achieve a truce in Gaza with the hope of building on momentum generated by the newly agreed ceasefire in Lebanon.

There are doubts, however, that such momentum exists outside the Biden administration, which is anxious to use its last few weeks to salvage scraps of diplomatic honour after the bloody past 14 months in the Middle East.

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‘Thank God we are home’: Lebanese return south after ceasefire with Israel

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People are relieved to be home but face having to rebuild lives among destroyed homes and villages

Before the ceasefire had even come into effect, Zeinab and Dina were already driving south. The two sisters had been forced to flee to Tripoli, northern Lebanon, for 64 days – they had counted – and they could not bear another day without seeing home.

“We were laughing and crying at the same time when we heard the news of the ceasefire. We were packing our stuff and still we didn’t believe it was happening, it was like a dream,” said Zeinab, 28, a resident of the town of Zibqeen in south Lebanon.

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UN chief says Lebanon ceasefire ‘first ray of hope amid darkness’ in conflict – as it happened

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Down to the final half-hour before the ceasefire comes into effect and AFP is reporting strikes on south Beirut after the Israel army’s evacuation warning.

“Urgent warning to residents of the Beirut area,” army spokesperson Avichay Adraee had earlier said in a post on X, telling people in the Bachoura area in the city centre to leave, as well as “all residents in the southern suburb area”, specifically in Ghobeiry.

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Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire comes into force with Biden insistent on ‘permanent cessation of hostilities’

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Reports of cars heading south inside Lebanon despite Israeli army warning displaced residents not to return home immediately

A highly anticipated ceasefire aimed at ending the 14-month-old war between Israel and Hezbollah officially came into effect early on Wednesday morning, hours after Joe Biden hailed the “historic” moment.

The ceasefire officially began at 0200 GMT – 4am in Lebanon – after the heaviest day of raids on Beirut, including a series of strikes in the city’s centre, since Israel stepped up its air campaign in Lebanon in late September before sending in ground troops.

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Israel makes ‘widespread attack’ on Hezbollah targets as ceasefire deal expected

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Airstrikes on Beirut and southern Lebanon some of the war’s heaviest to date, killing at least three people

Israel has launched some of the heaviest airstrikes to date on Beirut, the Lebanese capital, before an expected ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah.

The Israeli military began attacking areas of Beirut dominated by the Lebanese militia early on Tuesday before issuing a flurry of 20 evacuation calls – its widest warning to civilians since hostilities escalated into full-blown war in late September.

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What are the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and will it succeed?

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A truce between Israel and the Lebanese militant group has come into effect after 14 months of fighting

A ceasefire to end 14 months of fighting between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah has come into effect, with Lebanese civilians already returning to the devastated south of the country.

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Israeli cabinet to decide on ceasefire deal with Lebanon

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IDF would withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah pull back its heavy weapons under agreement

Israel’s security cabinet is due to meet on Tuesday to decide on a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon after more than a year of fighting between Israeli forces and the Shia militia Hezbollah.

Under the deal being considered, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would reportedly withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah would pull its heavy weapons north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army would move in to provide security in the border zone alongside an existing UN peacekeeping force, during an initial 60-day transition phase.

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For many in northern Israel the proposed ceasefire with Hezbollah brings hope

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Some who live close to the border with Lebanon believe a deal would allow them to raise their children in safety, but others say communities are split

There is a crack, a boom and a siren, all more or less simultaneously. Sergio Helman has not quite reached the concrete shelter a dozen metres away from his hummus restaurant, off highway 99, which marks the northernmost limit of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

The 60-year-old shrugs and explains that Hezbollah fires the rockets from so close that Israeli air defence systems can give only 15 seconds warning at best.

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Hezbollah fires barrage of rockets into Israel after strikes on Beirut

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Heavy attack launched in wake of deadly strikes on Beirut, and comes as talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal have stalled

Hezbollah has fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said, wounding seven people in one of the militant group’s heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with ceasefire efforts to halt the all-out war.

Some of the rockets fired on Sunday reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel.

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Revealed: Israel used US weapons in strike that killed journalists

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Killing of journalists in Israeli strike could be war crime, legal experts say after Guardian investigation

A Guardian investigation has found that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three more in a 25 October attack in south Lebanon which legal experts have called a potential war crime.

On 25 October at 3.19am, an Israeli jet shot two bombs at a chalet hosting three journalists – cameraman Ghassan Najjar and technician Mohammad Reda from pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen, as well as cameraman Wissam Qassem from the Hezbollah-affiliated outlet al-Manar.

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Hundreds flee north Gaza as IDF orders more evacuations amid intense airstrikes

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Senior Israeli minister says the war is far from over and Israel will stay ‘for years’ in the territory

The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of new areas of northern Gaza, setting off a fresh wave of civilian displacements on Sunday as intense airstrikes continued across much of the territory.

In Jerusalem, a senior minister said the war in Gaza was far from over and that Israel would stay “for years” in the territory.

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At least 20 killed and 66 wounded by Israeli bombing of Beirut homes

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Missing families feared dead after block of flats and nearby homes destroyed by airstrikes on Lebanese capital

At least 20 people have been killed and 66 wounded in a series of Israeli airstrikes on an apartment block in the densely populated Basta neighbourhood of central Beirut.

At least four bombs hit an eight-storey apartment building at about 4am on Saturday, without warning, producing blasts heard around the Lebanese capital. The strike levelled the building and destroyed seven smaller residential buildings in the surroundings, leaving meters-deep craters of rubble where the structures once stood.

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Middle East crisis: Netanyahu thanks Orbán for invite after ICC warrant, saying Hungary on ‘side of justice and truth’ – as it happened

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Israeli PM thanks his Hungarian counterpart after he extends invite in defiance of moves by International Criminal Court

The US have said they “fundamentally reject” the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for senior Israel officials and said the court does not have jurisdiction over the matter.

On Thursday, arrest warrants were issued by the court for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the late Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif over alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.

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‘Positive progress’ made in Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire talks, US envoy says

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Amos Hochstein to meet Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday after Beirut discussions over deal to end fighting

The US envoy Amos Hochstein has said there is “positive progress” towards a ceasefire in Lebanon after talks in Beirut aimed at ending 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hochstein has met Lebanese officials over the past two days after Hezbollah indicated it had agreed to the text of a US ceasefire proposal, although with some comments. He said on Tuesday that the gaps between Hezbollah and Israel had “narrowed”, raising optimism about a deal between the two parties.

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