Relief, anxiety mark truce in Lebanon

Anarchic Lebanese jammed the southern highway on Wednesday morning as soon as the Hizbollah-Israel ceasefire went into effect. Villagers driven from their villages in the south pilled their possessions on the roofs of their cars and spent four or five hours creeping towards Sidon, Tyre, and the devastated region below the Litani river to check on homes, farmland, and villages.

Under the terms of the US-France mediated deal, Israel will stop bombing Lebanon and within 60 days will pull its troops out of Lebanese territory to the UN-delineated border. Hizbollah will withdraw its fighters 30 kilometres northwards across the Litani river, and the Lebanese army will deploy in the border zone alongside UN peacekeepers. To achieve the ceasefire Hizbollah was compelled to decouple its attacks on Israel which were meant to open a second front in its war on Gaza.

When Lebanese from the area below the Litani crossed the Litani, Israel blocked them and shot at them. Israel committed multiple violations, including the occupation of the towns of Khiam and Markaba. Israeli troops remain determined to defend ground they have captured as long as they can. Some Israeli politicians want to turn the area below the Litani river into a no-man’s land buffer zone.

Batoul Mohammed Sleem cries as her father Mohammed Sleem hugs her, as they meet after two months after a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah took effect on Wednesday. Reuters

My friend Hamza and his daughter Betul waited till Thursday to make the pilgrimage to their village which is located well north of the Litani between Tyre and Sidon. Their house has minor damage from shock of bombings in and around the village. Father and daughter began cleaning the house which was filled with dust. During their exile, Hamza’s family sheltered in Druze villages in the Chouf mountains above Beirut’s international airport where Middle East Airlines became a national hero for maintaining flights while Israeli bombs landed on the perimeter of the runway.

My colleague Nicole who lives in central Ras Beirut breathed a sigh of relief when the ceasefire began. “The bombs were coming closer and closer,” to her building where she lives on the top floor. She is relieved that her son left for France ahead of the ceasefire and her daughter is settled in the US.

More than 3,960 people were killed and 16,500 injured in Israeli attacks and 1 million displaced since October 8th, last year, when Hizbollah and Israel began to exchange fire. This is the second time Hizbollah brought down Israel’s wrath on Lebanon. The first was in 2006 when Hizbollah fighters ambushed an Israeli patrol on the Lebanese-Israeli border. This triggered a 34-day war which ended when Hizbollah fighters fought Israeli troops to a standstill and the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1701 which – with amendments – is the basis of the current ceasefire.

South of Lebanon’s border, the 60,000 Israelis who have fled their northern villages and settlements remain reluctant to go home. While many fear the possibility that Hizbollah might resume drone and missile attacks, a few believe Hizbollah fighters might conduct an October 7th Hamas-style raid. During that attack Hamas killed 1,200 and kidnapped 251. Since Israelis are not used to being victims, this event has instilled enduring trauma which has been deepened by fear-mongering right-wing media and the government under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

A woman hugs her crying daughter as displaced residents return to Dahiyeh, Lebanon, following a ceasefire on Wednesday. AP

While 2.3 million Gazans and Hamas’ 101 Israeli captives continue to pay the price of the Hamas raid, Netanyahu does not dare end the Gaza war. Once the guns fall silent, he will have to answer for his failure to predict and pre-empt the Hamas attack and for the Israeli army’s slow response.

Writing in the Israeli liberal daily Haaretz, Bar Peleg reported that a civilian probe into the October 7th events “concluded that the Israeli government and security establishment failed to protect civilians” and accused Netanyahu of “undermining decision-making forums and advancing policies that led to the failure.” Netanyahu — who has served as prime minister for 15 of the last 16 years — adopted a policy of “quiet for cash.” This enabled Hamas to maintain its administration of Gaza by importing from Qatar hundreds of millions of dollars in cash-filled suitcases.

Netanyahu’s aim was to sustain the rift between Hamas and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. This divided the Palestinian people and damaged the Palestinian cause by allowing Netanyahu to claim that there was no Palestinian partner to negotiate the emergence of a Palestinian state under the “two state” solution – which Netanyahu rejects.

While “quiet for cash” worked for years, Hamas could not carry on with it while Israeli settlements spread across the West Bank, settlers and troops attacked Palestinian West Bankers, and Jewish religious fanatics violated the compound housing al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock in occupied East Jerusalem. Hamas was bound to lash out and Hizbollah was certain to follow suit.

While Israel’s war on Gaza continues, Hizbollah must maintain credibility with Lebanese residents of the damaged and devastated southern villages. Since the broken and bankrupted government in Beirut cannot repair and rebuild shattered homes and ruined farmland and plantations, Hizbollah’ s construction firm, Jihad Al-Binna, must step in as it did in 2006 to rebuild homes and infrastructure. Its engineers are already making the rounds to assess damage, a Lebanese southern source told The Gulf Today.

Hizbollah’ s social welfare arm will also support displaced persons who return to homes in devastated villages and towns. Hizbollah’ s martyr’s association will have to pay stipends to families of fighters who have been killed in battle and Hizbollah’ s doctors and nurses will return to clinics and teachers to schools. Hizbollah relies on funds from its ally, Iran, as well as wealthy Shia businessmen who prospered in Africa, the Lebanese diaspora, taxes, investments, and donations from firms and individuals.

Hizbollah will also be obliged to play a more low-key role on Lebanon’s political front by reaching an accommodation with the country’s other political parties over the election of a president. Lebanon has been without a president for more than two years due to parliament’s inability to agree on a replacement for Michel Aoun who left office in October 2022. Although parliament has tried and failed 11 times to choose a new president, speaker Nabih Berri has called for deputies to meet on January 9th in the hope that they might succeed in the wake of Lebanon’s latest disaster.