Updates
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French President Emmanuel Macron will host Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the Élysée Palace on Tuesday, where he is expected to reaffirm France's commitment to the ceasefire and Lebanon's territorial sovereignty. The meeting comes after a French UNIFIL peacekeeper was killed Saturday in an attack that Macron and the United Nations attributed to Hezbollah, prompting all 15 UN Security Council members to condemn the strike and call for those responsible to be brought to justice. Direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel are expected to follow later in the week in Washington on Thursday. Lebanon's official death toll from the past six weeks of fighting has risen to at least 2,387.
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Lebanon's military announced Sunday it had fully reopened the road linking Nabatiyeh with the Khardali area and partially reopened the Burj Rahal-Tyre bridge, while work is underway to rehabilitate the Tayr Falsay-Tyre bridge. The vital Qasmiyeh bridge, which crosses the Litani River, also reopened, providing a critical artery for displaced residents attempting to reach properties south of the waterway. Lebanese authorities said the Israeli offensive has killed more than 2,100 people, including 177 children, and displaced over 1.2 million since the conflict escalated. Despite the reopened routes, heavy traffic was observed heading back north toward Beirut as many residents chose to return to temporary shelters rather than remain in the south, with uncertainty over the truce's longevity keeping permanent return out of reach.
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Thousands of displaced Lebanese families continued returning to southern towns Sunday, with long convoys of vehicles streaming past Sidon toward inland areas including Nabatiyeh, now four days into the ceasefire. Residents arrived to find homes in varying states of damage — some structurally intact but scarred, others gutted by blast pressure that tore through roofs and water tanks stored above. Many families said they were hesitant to touch or move through damaged structures out of fear, reflecting a broader uncertainty about both the physical safety of buildings and whether the fragile truce would hold.
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Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had directed the military to act with "full force, both on the ground and from the air" in Lebanon even during the ceasefire, in order to protect soldiers from any threat. Katz said forces had also been ordered to demolish structures and roads that were booby-trapped, citing the death of an Israeli soldier on Friday who was killed after entering such a building — the first day of the truce. Military sources told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the demolitions, carried out by dozens of heavy vehicles and hired contractors operating south of the Litani River, are part of a deliberate policy to clear the area of all structures — including homes, public buildings and schools — with the stated aim of establishing a long-term security zone and deterring civilians from returning.
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Residents returning to Dahiye, the sprawling 22-square-kilometer suburban district south of Beirut where some 700,000 people live, found apocalyptic destruction across neighborhoods including Haret Hreik, Laylaki and Hadath, with barely two consecutive streets free of collapsed or heavily damaged buildings. A thick cloud of dust hung over the area Saturday as residents cleared debris and swept streets, while pedestrians kept their distance from residential towers left standing only precariously. Most who made the journey had come not to stay but to assess what remained of their homes, uncertain whether the 10-day truce would hold long enough to allow permanent return.
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The Israeli military announced Saturday that it has established a so-called "yellow line" in southern Lebanon, similar to the demarcation it uses in Gaza to define its zone of operation. Israeli forces said they had struck individuals they identified as militants who crossed north of the line and posed an immediate threat to troops in the preceding 24 hours. The military stated its forces are authorized to carry out such strikes despite the ceasefire being in effect — the same justification Israel has applied repeatedly in Gaza, where it has continued to strike people it claims are threatening troops near its demarcation line there.
Tens of thousands of displaced Lebanese families are attempting to return to their homes in southern Lebanon, even as Israeli artillery shelling and bulldozer demolitions persist in violation of a ceasefire that took effect on Thursday night. The 10-day truce had raised hopes of a sustained pause following 46 days of intensified Israeli attacks, but conditions on the ground remain deeply uncertain, with residents arriving to find widespread destruction and, in many cases, turning back.
In villages near the southern border, Israeli forces continued shelling areas around Beit Lif, al-Qantara and Toul, while bulldozers carried out land-clearing and demolition operations across several locations. In Khiam, a border town in southeastern Lebanon, the Lebanese army erected barriers to prevent residents from re-entering after loud explosions continued to be heard — part of a stretch of territory that remains partly under Israeli occupation. Bridges south of the Litani River, a waterway that runs across southern Lebanon roughly 30 kilometres from the Israeli border, have also been damaged by Israeli strikes, further slowing returns. Israeli officials have indicated that their forces will retain control of 55 towns and villages, and have established what they describe as a "yellow line" security zone extending up to 10 kilometres inside Lebanese territory.
The scale of destruction is staggering. A preliminary assessment by Lebanese authorities conducted before the truce found that nearly 40,000 homes had been destroyed or damaged, with Beirut's southern suburbs and districts across the south among the worst-affected areas. "There's destruction and it's unliveable. We're taking our things and leaving again," said Fadel Badreddine, who had been displaced from Nabatieh. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz acknowledged that the area between the security zone and the Litani River had not yet been cleared of fighters and weapons, saying the issue would require either diplomatic resolution or continued military action.
Diplomatically, rare direct talks between Lebanon and Israel are expected to resume in the coming days, though the two sides hold sharply divergent positions. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who declared on Friday that the country was entering a new phase that could transform the temporary ceasefire into permanent peace, met Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at Baabda Palace on Saturday to review security and diplomatic developments. Both the Israeli and Lebanese governments have called for Hezbollah — the Lebanese Shia political and military movement — to disarm, but the group insists its weapons are essential for national defence and has linked any broader settlement to ongoing regional diplomacy involving Iran.
Why this matters: the ceasefire's durability is fragile, and its fate is tied to multiple overlapping negotiations — between Lebanon and Israel, and between the United States and Iran, with talks in Islamabad expected in the coming days. For the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese displaced by the conflict, the question of whether they can safely go home remains unanswered.
This article was automatically compiled by AI from the sources above. It may contain inaccuracies. Always read the original sources for the full context.
