Friday Briefing: Day 2 of Lebanon’s Cease-fire

The uneasy truce between Israel and Hezbollah largely held through its second day in Lebanon yesterday, though Israel conducted an airstrike that it said targeted militants violating terms of the cease-fire deal.

The Israeli strike was the first of its kind since the cease-fire went into effect before dawn on Wednesday. But despite an exchange of blame between two parties of the deal — Israel and Lebanon — neither of the war’s combatants, Israel or Hezbollah, seemed keen to return to full-scale fighting.

The Israeli military said its airstrike, near the border in southern Lebanon, had targeted two militants arriving at a Hezbollah rocket facility that had been used to fire into Israel. Lebanon’s army, which is set to play a major role in enforcing the truce, accused Israel of violating the cease-fire “several times” yesterday. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.

Across Lebanon, people greeted the cease-fire that ended the country’s deadliest war in three decades with relief, hoping that some sense of normalcy would return.

Joy and tears: Many Lebanese returned to their towns and villages to find homes that would require costly repairs to make them livable again. Some found no homes at all, just piles of concrete and twisted metal with their possessions somewhere beneath. Read more about their journey home.

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