Mourners buried the dead across Lebanon over the weekend as a fragile 10-day ceasefire brought a partial halt to 46 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. In Beirut, crowds carried the bodies of Hezbollah fighters through the streets, while in Tyre — an ancient port city in the south — families gathered at temporary graves to bury civilians killed in strikes in the final hours before the truce took hold on Friday.
The pause in fighting triggered an immediate rush home. Highways leading to southern Lebanon and to Hezbollah's strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs were clogged with traffic as roughly 1.2 million displaced residents attempted to return. Many found their homes damaged or destroyed. The ceasefire, brokered by the White House, has reduced but not stopped the violence: Lebanese news outlets reported dozens of Israeli strikes continued over the weekend, and Hezbollah claimed it ambushed Israeli soldiers near the southern village of Taybeh. The ceasefire has also been overshadowed by the killing of a French soldier serving with UNIFIL — the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, deployed to the border region for decades — on Saturday, with French President Emmanuel Macron stating that all evidence pointed to Hezbollah's responsibility. The organisation denied involvement.
A significant obstacle looms for civilians in the south. The Israeli military has declared a Gaza-style buffer zone, forbidding Lebanese residents from returning to 55 villages south of what it has designated a "yellow line." Israeli army commanders have described a policy of widespread demolition of civilian infrastructure in the area, mirroring tactics used in Gaza. The Lebanese government, for its part, has insisted its decision to disarm Hezbollah is "irreversible," with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam set to meet French President Macron on Tuesday.
Hezbollah has rejected both the disarmament push and any meaningful role for the ceasefire. Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared on the truce's first day that his fighters' "hands will remain on the trigger," and on the second day called the ceasefire "useless in practical terms." The militia was not a party to the agreement and has refused to enter negotiations between Israel and the Lebanese government. A senior Hezbollah political official also criticised President Joseph Aoun for engaging with Israel without acknowledging Iran — whose supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed by Israel on 28 February, an event that directly triggered the current round of fighting on 2 March.
The conflict has left at least 2,294 dead and 7,544 wounded, according to Lebanese health authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. With the ceasefire repeatedly violated, its 10-day window narrowing, and a separate US-brokered truce with Iran expiring Wednesday, the path toward a durable peace remains deeply uncertain.