Celebrations and tears of relief in southern Beirut
Today has been a day of celebration here in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
We know that Hezbollah has endured a number of losses and heavy blows but from what we’ve seen of the celebrations, we wouldn’t be able to tell that this was perhaps not an all-out victory.
We’ve heard thousands of rounds of small arms fired not in combat but in celebration. There are crowds forming, flying flags and chanting. People are handing out cakes and sweets and there were also people in tears – tears of relief that the violence has ended.
But the road ahead is going to be incredibly challenging.
I’m standing in front of a building that has been levelled by an Israeli air strike. The air campaign has been absolutely indiscriminate and has devastated neighbourhoods across the capital, across the southern suburbs of Beirut.
And scenes like this are repeated block after block; there is scarcely a street, scarcely a neighbourhood that has not either experienced a building come down completely or that has not suffered some kind of damage from the blast wave of what were very strong bombs that Israel has been dropping.
A man looks at his neighbourhood as he clears debris and rubble from an apartment in Beirut’s southern suburbs
Hezbollah planning ‘public’ and ‘official’ funeral for Nasrallah: Official
The deputy leader of Hezbollah’s political council Mahmoud Qmati says the group is preparing an official public funeral for former chief Hassan Nasrallah, killed two months ago in an Israeli strike on Beirut.
Hezbollah postponed the service “in order to organise a funeral. We are preparing for this funeral worthy” of Nasrallah, Qomati told a news conference in Beirut’s southern suburbs, adding that the service will be “public and official”.
Israeli soldiers fire at journalists in Lebanon’s Khiam
The head of the Syndicate of Lebanese Press Editors, Joseph al-Qassifi, has condemned the attack on journalists in the southern Lebanese town, which wounded two journalists – one working for The Associated Press and the other for Sputnik, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports.
NNA said the journalists had to be evacuated to hospital for their injuries, and cited al-Qassifi as saying that this incident marks the first violation of the ceasefire agreed upon on Tuesday.
Al-Qassifi also said that this is a “continuation of the series of crimes perpetrated by Israel against journalists since 2023, which has resulted in the killing of at least 12 reporters and camerapeople, in addition to the tens who were disabled or severely wounded”.
Israeli army says four people arrested in southern Lebanon
On the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, the Israeli army says it has arrested four suspects, saying they approached army positions in southern Lebanon.
“The detainees are interrogated in the field,” the army said without elaborating on their fate. Earlier, the army said, it fired on several vehicles in southern Lebanon that had approached its positions.
Israeli army announces southern Lebanon curfew
Israeli forces have ordered a curfew in southern Lebanon from this evening until Thursday morning.
“We inform you that starting from 5pm [15:00 GMT] until tomorrow morning at 7am [05:00 GMT], it is absolutely forbidden to travel south of the Litani River,” Israeli army Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, adding that any movement in that area “exposes you to danger”.
The spokesman said the Israeli military “is still deployed in its positions in southern Lebanon in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire agreement, and our forces will deal firmly with any movement that violates this agreement”.
