BEIRUT/GAZA: A ceasefire between the Zionist entity and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held on Wednesday after the two sides struck a deal brokered by the US and France, but the Zionist entity warned local residents not to return to the border area yet. The ceasefire agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region wracked by conflict for months, ended the deadliest confrontation between the Zionist entity and Hezbollah in years, but the Zionist entity is still fighting its other archfoe, the Palestinian group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

Cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases and even furniture streamed through the heavily-bombed southern port city of Tyre, heading south where hundreds of thousands of people had been forced to flee their homes by the violence.

However, the Zionist army’s Arabic spokesperson cautioned southern Lebanon residents against moving south of the Litani River from 5 pm to 7 am, noting that Zionist forces were still present in the area.

Lebanon’s army, tasked with ensuring the ceasefire lasts, said it began deploying additional troops south of the Litani, into a region heavily bombarded by the Zionist entity in its battle against Hezbollah. The river runs about 30 km north of the Zionist entity’s border. The Zionist attacks have also struck eastern cities and towns and Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and Zionist troops have pushed around 6 km into Lebanon in a series of ground incursions launched in September.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Zionist forces can remain in Lebanon for 60 days and Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border, after four Hezbollah operatives were detained in the area. The Lebanese army urged returning residents not to approach areas where Zionist forces were present for their own safety.

Diplomatic efforts will now turn to shattered Gaza, where the Zionist entity has vowed to destroy Hamas. However, there were no hopes of peace returning any time soon to the Palestinian enclave. In Lebanon, some cars flew national flags, others honked, and one woman could be seen flashing the victory sign with her fingers as people started to return to homes they had fled.

Many of the villages the people were likely returning to have been destroyed. Hussam Arrout, a father of four, said he was itching to return to his home. “The (Zionists) haven’t withdrawn in full, they’re still on the edge. So we decided to wait until the army announces that we can go in. Then we’ll turn the cars on immediately and go to the village,” he said.

Announcing the ceasefire, US President Joe Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after the Zionist entity’s security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote. “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden said. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten the security of (the Zionist entity) again.”

The Zionist will gradually withdraw its forces as Lebanon’s army takes control of territory near its border with the Zionist entity to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there after a costly war, Biden said. He said his administration was also pushing for an elusive ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the group “appreciates” Lebanon’s right to reach an agreement which protects its people, and hopes for a deal to end the Gaza war. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US would start its renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire on Wednesday. But without a similar agreement yet in Gaza, many residents said they felt abandoned. “We hope that all Arab and Western countries, and all people with merciful hearts and consciences...implement a truce here because we are tired,” said displaced Gazan Malak Abu Laila.

Zionist military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 15 people on Wednesday, some of them in a school housing displaced people, medics in Gaza said. Health officials in the Hamas-run enclave said eight Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded in a Zionist strike that hit the Al-Tabeaeen School, which was sheltering displaced families in Gaza City.

Among those killed were two sons of former Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, according to medics and Barhoum himself. In the Shujaiya suburb of Gaza City, another strike killed four people, while three people were killed in a Zionist air strike in Beit Lahia on the northern edge of the enclave where army forces have been operating since last month.

Tehran reserves the right to react to Zionist airstrikes on Iran last month but also bears in mind other developments in the region, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. Araghchi told reporters during a trip to Lisbon that Iran welcomed Tuesday’s ceasefire agreement in Lebanon and hoped it could lead to a permanent ceasefire.

The Zionist military said on Wednesday Zionist forces fired at several vehicles with suspects to prevent them from reaching a no-go zone in Lebanese territory and the suspects moved away. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said that the group would retain the right to defend itself if the Zionist entity attacked. The ceasefire would give the Zionist army an opportunity to rest and replenish supplies, and isolate Hamas, said Netanyahu. – Reuters