Israel-Lebanon ceasefire latest: Thousands defy Israeli warnings and return home as Hezbollah truce holds

US envoy Amos Hochstein told Al Jazeera that the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon was “permanent”.

He said the Israeli military on the ground in the first two-three km from the border will remain in place and the Lebanese army will redeploy back down to the south.

The first Israeli forces “will leave over the next several days, or first couple of weeks, and gradually, over 60 days, they will all depart,” he said.

“But there is a lot to do in these 60 days. The Lebanese army cannot deploy that many forces that quickly all across the south when they haven’t been there in such a long time.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah will provide some measure of relief to civilian populations in Lebanon and Northern Israel and urged progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden said a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah will take effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France.

Biden, who gave remarks at the White House shortly after Israel’s security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote, said he had spoken to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border would end at 4 a.m. local time (2am GMT).

“We must see immediate progress towards a ceasefire deal in Gaza, the release of all hostages and the removal of restrictions on desperately needed humanitarian aid,” Starmer said in a post on X.

Foreign Minister David Lammy said the ceasefire must be a turning point that builds momentum towards a lasting peace in the Middle East.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that Israel will respond ‘with might’ if the Iran-backed group violates the ceasefire.

“If Hezbollah breaks the agreement and tries to rearm, we will attack,” Mr Netanyahu said.

“For every violation, we will attack with might.”

His office said Israel appreciated the US efforts in securing the deal but “reserves the right to act against every threat to its security”.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet has approved a ceasefire deal with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, clearing the way for the truce to take effect.

The late-night vote came shortly before President Joe Biden was expected to announce details of the deal in Washington. Biden called the ceasefire in Lebanon “good news,” but it’s not clear how the truce will affect the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

In the hours before Israel agreed to the ceasefire, residents of Beirut endured the most intense wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and its southern suburbs since the start of the 13-month war.

Israel was apparently signaling it intended to pummel the country before any ceasefire takes hold. Hezbollah also fired rockets into Israel, triggering air raid sirens across the country’s north.

Israel has warned residents evacuated from southern Lebanon not to head home yet due to the ongoing military deployment in the region.

Residents were warned in the first half-hour of the ceasefire, which began a short while ago at 4am (local time) today, a day after Israel carried out its most intense wave of airstrikes in Beirut.

There appeared to be lingering disagreement over whether Israel would have the right to strike Hezbollah if it believed the militants had violated the agreement, which Israel insisted was part of the deal but Lebanese and Hezbollah officials have rejected.

The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants began early this morning as a region on edge wondered whether it would hold. The ceasefire announced Tuesday is a major step toward ending nearly 14 months of fighting sparked by the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli strikes late on Tuesday targeted Lebanon’s three northern border crossings with Syria for the first time, Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.

The strikes came moments after US President Joe Biden announced that a ceasefire would come into effect at 4am local time (2am GMT) on Wednesday to halt hostilities between Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israel.

Hamieh said it was not immediately clear whether the roads had been cut off as a result of the strikes. Israeli raids on Lebanon’s eastern crossings in recent weeks had already sealed off those routes into Syria.

Syrian state media Sana had said Israeli strikes targeted the northern crossings between Syria and Lebanon but it was not immediately clear what side of the border was hit.

Syrian state TV reported that 10 people were injured, including three critically, in an Israeli strike on the Arida border crossing, with the wounded transported to nearby hospitals, while casualties were also reported in a separate Israeli strike on the Dabousieh border crossing with Lebanon.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment but has previously stated that it targets what it says are Iran-linked sites in Syria as part of a broader campaign to curb the influence of Iran and its ally Hezbollah in the region.