“My house is demolished.”
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Imad Komeyha and his family spent 12 hours traveling from northern Lebanon back to Kfar Sir, a village in the south, only to find their house in ruins, laid to waste amid Israeli airstrikes.
He had been among 1 million people displaced by Israel’s invasion, launched in March after Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed force in Lebanon separate from the government, fired rockets from Lebanon in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon had reached a 10-day ceasefire deal, but many returning to their homes in southern Lebanon found only destruction.
“I am devastated,” Komeyha, a 62-year-old political analyst, told NBC News. “My eldest son is married and has a baby. He lives downstairs, in the same building, his house is also gone.”
Komeyha said it was the third time his family had been displaced, after fleeing the village in 2006 and 2024, and he was tired of repeating the cycle of loss and return. “How many times do we need to leave our houses?” he said. “My whole family is homeless, and we want to stay despite everything.”
While the ceasefire has opened a narrow window for displaced families to return to the south, it has done little to resolve the conflict or guarantee their safety.
Across the region, hundreds of thousands are weighing whether to return to homes that may no longer exist, even as Israeli forces remain and the risk of renewed violence lingers.
A French peacekeeper was killed Saturday and three others wounded after a United Nations patrol came under fire, with French President Emmanuel Macron blaming Hezbollah. The same day, an Israeli Defense Forces soldier was killed and nine others were wounded by an explosive.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,100 people in Lebanon since Israel’s invasion began, according to figures from the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the IDF would “continue to operate in the security zone” it has established in southern Lebanon “in order to thwart threats directed at them and at our communities, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.” The Lebanese army has warned people to avoid “approaching areas where Israeli occupation forces have advanced.”
While those warnings have not stopped people from returning, they have deepened a sense of fear and uncertainty.
Adeeb Farhat, a 34-year-old filmmaker from Arab Salim, feared Israel could “attack us an any minute,” but he had still made the journey home to the south.
“To tell you the truth, this time it is extremely scary, but we can’t help it, we have to come and check on our houses. Our feeling of belonging is very strong,” he said.
Others are preparing to follow despite the risks.
Ikbal Daher, a housewife from Qana in southern Lebanon, told NBC News on Friday that she planned on heading back to her village over the weekend. “We know as a fact that there is a massive destruction of buildings and infrastructure in Qana,” Daher, 40, said, but “we are excited, happy and proud.”
“Yes, we don’t trust Israel, and we might be exposed to airstrikes, but we don’t care,” she added.
While some move forward with cautious determination, the ceasefire itself remains fragile and conditional. The deal commits Israel and Lebanon to “engaging in good-faith direct negotiations, facilitated by the United States, with the objective of achieving a comprehensive agreement that ensures lasting security, stability, and peace between the two countries,” the State Department said.
Lebanon’s government must “take meaningful steps” to prevent Hezbollah from carrying out any attacks on Israel, the statement added, while Israel “shall preserve its right to take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.”
Hezbollah said its fighters’ fingers would remain “on the trigger” in case Israel violates the ceasefire. On Saturday, the group issued “five points” that it wants to see fulfilled as part of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
Those include a permanent end of air, land and sea attacks on Lebanon, the withdrawal of Israel from occupied areas in southern Lebanon, the release of prisoners, the return of residents to their homes on the border, and the reconstruction of the area with international support, Naim Qassem, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, said.
Despite uncertainty over the ceasefire’s extension into a longer-term deal and the fate of the region, some people returning to southern Lebanon were steadfast in their determination to rebuild their lives there.
Ali Eid, a high school instructor from Maarakah in the south, returned with his five children only to find his house and most of the village reduced to rubble, but the 60-year-old said he felt “happy and sad at the same time,” overjoyed to see his neighbors again.
“Our losses are incredible. Many people got killed, all our belongings are gone, all our achievements vanished,” he added. “This is not easy, but life and survival are stronger.”
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