Officials in southern Lebanon are urging residents who fled the fighting to stay put for now, even after a deal between the United States and Iran aimed at ending the broader conflict — because Israel says it has no plans to pull its forces out of the region.
The war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has been devastating for Lebanon. Thousands of people have been killed, and roughly 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced from their homes since Israel launched its offensive after Hezbollah began firing on Israel in support of Tehran on March 2.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who played a central role as a mediator between Tehran and Washington, announced early Monday local time that a deal had been reached. He said the agreement calls for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
Despite that announcement, municipal councils in southern Lebanon — where Israeli forces have established a self-declared security zone — issued statements urging residents not to return home yet, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
Mona Mazeh, a displaced woman currently sheltering in Beirut’s Hamra district, said she has no plans to go back to her village near the southern city of Tyre anytime soon. “Frankly, we are hesitant; Israel cannot be trusted,” she said.
Israel is not a party to the US-Iran agreement, and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz made clear that his country intends to hold its ground. Katz said Israel will not pull back from security zones it has established in southern Lebanon, Gaza, or Syria, and warned that Israel would strike back if Iran attacked it over events in Lebanon.
Katz also said the security zone in southern Lebanon would be cleared of local residents and what he described as “all terrorist infrastructure, including houses in contact villages” — a reference to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah itself had not issued any statement on the agreement as of Monday. However, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a political ally of the group and leader of the Shi’ite Muslim Amal Movement, said the deal established “the foundations for security and stability in the region, including Lebanon.”
In a written statement, Berri thanked both Iran and the United States for including a halt to Israeli attacks on Lebanon as part of the agreement, calling that provision binding.
The Israeli military has spent weeks demolishing villages in southern Lebanon, saying it is targeting Hezbollah fighters who operate within civilian communities in the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim area. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shi’ites have taken refuge in other parts of the country.
In Nabatieh, a heavily damaged city in the south, resident Mohammed Daqdouq said he traveled back Monday morning to check on his home. “We’ll need a lifetime to rebuild — to rebuild it again and bring Nabatieh back to how it was,” he said.
Iran had insisted that any broader deal with the United States include a ceasefire in Lebanon. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards originally founded Hezbollah back in 1982.
