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AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of displaced residents of southern Lebanon are returning home to find scenes of devastation after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect earlier today. In the hours before the cessation of hostilities, Israel repeatedly struck areas of Beirut and southern Lebanon. Under the deal, Israel will withdraw troops from Lebanon’s south over a 60-day period, while Hezbollah will move its fighters and weapons to north of the Litani River. Lebanese troops will redeploy to the south.
In a joint statement, the U.S. and France said, quote, “This announcement will create the conditions to restore lasting calm and allow residents in both countries to return safely to their homes,” unquote.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati spoke earlier today.
PRIME MINISTER NAJIB MIKATI: [translated] Truly, it is a new day, concluding one of the most difficult stages of suffering that the Lebanese have experienced in their modern history. It actually was the most harsh, as well as hopeful. …
On this day, the 1,000-mile journey begins to rebuild what was destroyed and to complete strengthening the role of legitimate institutions, at the forefront of which is the army, on which we place great hopes to extend the state’s authority over the whole nation and strengthen its presence in the wounded south.
AMY GOODMAN: Over the past 14 months, Israel has killed over 3,800 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million. Israel also killed the entire leadership of Hezbollah, including Hassan Nasrallah and two of his successors. Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes.
We’re joined now by two guests. In Tel Aviv, in Israel, we’re joined by Gideon Levy, award-winning Israeli journalist, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, where he’s a member of its editorial board. His latest book, The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe. And in Montreal, Canada, Lina Mounzer is with us, Lebanese writer, senior editor of the arts and literature magazine The Markaz Review.
You know, I remember just after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Lina, you were in our studio here, and you wrote about what it was like to see an attack on your country from afar, what it meant. Talk about the significance of the ceasefire now.
LINA MOUNZER: I mean, of course, you know, it’s a welcome relief for the entire country to have this ceasefire. At the same time, it leaves so much devastation behind, you know. And you spoke about in the last hours the Israelis’ continued bombing up until. I’m not sure that that conveys the level of barbarism. I mean, they were essentially carpet-bombing the south and Beirut and hitting all kinds of targets, and, you know, absolutely indiscriminately.
You know, Israelis always talk about targeted attacks, and people buy this. And it’s reported even that, you know, when innocent civilians die, it’s usually as a collateral damage to these targeted attacks. And, of course, there have been targeted assassinations. We’ve seen them. Already the idea that civilians are acceptable collateral damage to this kind of targeted assassination is already just a completely outrageous idea.
But, you know, yesterday, in the final hours of the ceasefire, I had a dear friend who lost his elderly parents. There was absolutely no warning. And they were targeted directly in their apartment, and based on, essentially, I suppose, erroneous AI information. And this is something that has happened to countless families over the course of these last 14 months. It was especially difficult. You know, I am in Montreal, but I was speaking to friends throughout the day. I was hearing the airstrikes. People were terrified. People were running on foot. There was absolutely no safe place to hide. It was truly like, you know, 24 hours that were just condensed horror. And it is absolute terrorism. It is barbarism. I don’t have any other words to describe it.
And so, there’s a lot of relief now as we go into the ceasefire. At the same time, there’s a lot of apprehension, because we’re not sure how long it’s going to last. It feels like a very fragile truce, essentially. And also, you know, people are coming back not just to devastated homes and devastated lands in the south, but they’re picking up the pieces of their lost families. There are a lot of people now who are going to be able to have funerals that they weren’t able to have, memorials that they weren’t able to have. You know, the grieving process begins now, not just for the country at large, but specifically for so many families who have lost their loved ones, including up until these final 24 hours. So, yes, there is relief, but there’s also a lot of apprehension and just an incredible amount of grief. Incredible amount of grief, you know? People are finding it very difficult to celebrate. A lot of people that I spoke to just said, “I have no energy to do anything today but just sit and cry,” you know? So, it is, again, very, very mixed feelings around this, but, of course, a lot of relief just at least that the killing is over, because it was just — it was just barbaric.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Lina, what do we know about the terms of this ceasefire or truce? And we’ve heard from Netanyahu and Biden, but Hezbollah has been silent until now. What do we know about their perspective?
LINA MOUNZER: I think Hezbollah spoke about it earlier. They did not release statements after the U.S. and Israel released their statements. They had kind of — they had spoken earlier just in agreeing, essentially, to this truce already, so I think that that was the statement that they gave, you know? That spoke on their behalf, essentially.
And what we know about — you know, I’ve heard so many different things about the terms of this truce, and I’ve read many different things. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure, because there’s so many contradictory things. But from what I read, yes, there is this idea that the Israelis are now going to withdraw, over 60 days, their troops. I mean, already they’ve been — people are going, flocking to the south to just see the destruction. And the Israelis have been threatening, you know, since yesterday that it’s not safe to return to the south: “You’re not allowed to return until we tell you to return.” So, already, you know, this idea that there’s going to be a restoration of some kind of Lebanese sovereignty over the land, this is already being contradicted by the behavior and the directives of the Israeli army.
And, you know, essentially, also what I’ve read and what I’ve seen is that Israel has the right to violate Lebanese sovereignty at any moment, should they decide that there is excuse enough. And, you know, when Israel acts with the impunity that we’ve seen it act with, and we know that it has the absolute, full backing of the United States, it’s also very difficult to feel safe as a Lebanese person or to feel that the terms of this truce are in any way safe, you know, or in any way provide some sense of security, because you know that at any point they can use any excuse that they like, and it will be accepted. You know, it will be accepted. There’s nothing that we can say on the world stage that is going to prevent violation, further violation, further carpet bombing.
So, there really is a sense of being completely exposed before the world and having no political recourse, essentially, being at the mercy of these larger powers, which, you know, they have demonstrated again and again their brutality over the last 14 months, not just in Lebanon, but much more largely in Gaza.
