The massive crater left by the Beirut strike was lit up in red and festooned with Hezbollah flags. At its centre, torches projected light beams into the night sky.

Men, women and children wept at the sight of the crater, while the crowd chanted “At your service, Nasrallah” – a common rallying cry among Hezbollah supporters.

Nasrallah led Hezbollah for more than 30 years as it became a formidable force in Lebanon, turning him into one of the most influential figures in the Middle East.

A ceasefire deal agreed between Hezbollah and Israel on Wednesday paved the way for the southern suburb where Nasrallah was killed, on 27 September, to be opened to journalists and the public.

The militant and political group had previously closely guarded access to the suburb, known as the Dahieh, particularly the place where Nasrallah was assassinated, which was entirely closed off.

The Israeli strike that killed the Hezbollah leader was reportedly made up of as many as 80 bunker busting bombs, and it destroyed several residential buildings in Harek Hreik – the neighbourhood that forms the centre of Hezbollah’s operations in Beirut.

When the crowd was granted access to the site for the first time on Saturday night, people surged into the open area left by the destroyed buildings and climbed up around the edges of the crater.

Many held aloft candles and pictures of Nasrallah, who was 64, while a speech by the former leader played from a sound system.

“For these two and half months we have refused to believe that he is really gone,” said Narjis Khshaish, 31, who wept and clutched a candle.

“We have all just been waiting to reach this place to receive his blessings,” she said.

Moussa Dirani, 57, brought his teenage son to the memorial event. “It is very sad and painful to see this site,” he said. “But the resistance does not stop with Nasrallah, his death gives us power to continue along his path.”

The hundreds of Hezbollah flags at the event would “continue to fly high”, said Fida Nasreddine, 34. “We are with Hassan Nasrallah until the last breath,” she said.

Nasrallah’s assassination shocked Lebanon and the wider world when the news broke in September. He had rarely been seen in public since Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel, and was protected by tight security at all times.

He was one of a number of senior Hezbollah figures killed by Israel in air strikes between September and the ceasefire agreement struck on Wednesday.

The group had been badly damaged by the assassinations, but the sense of celebration in the Hezbollah-dominated areas of Beirut “cannot be dismissed as insincere”, said David Wood, a Lebanon analyst with Crisis Group.

“The achievements that Hezbollah has promoted – maintaining its ground operations against Israel, ensuring that tens of thousands of Israelis couldn’t return to their homes, and having a severe impact on Israel’s economy, I don’t think those achievements are nothing, and I think lots of its supporters will see an element of victory in that.”

Ten people were killed in southern Lebanon on Monday night, the health ministry said, after Israel carried out its biggest wave of air strikes since both sides agreed last week to end 13 months of conflict.

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah fighters, launchers and infrastructure and urged Lebanese authorities to prevent what it called the group’s “hostile activity”.

Hezbollah had earlier fired two mortars at an Israeli army base in a disputed border area, saying they were a warning over what it saw as “repeated violations” by Israel. No casualties were reported.

The US, which along with France brokered the agreement and is monitoring compliance, said that “largely speaking” the ceasefire was holding despite the violence.

Under the deal, Hezbollah has been given 60 days to end its armed presence between the Blue Line – the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel – and the Litani river, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

Israeli forces must withdraw from the area over the same period, and Lebanese army troops and UN peacekeepers are due to deploy there.

The conflict began on 8 October 2023, when Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel.

Israel launched an intense air campaign and ground invasion against the Iran-backed group in late September, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the rocket attacks.

Lebanese authorities say more than 3,960 people were killed during the hostilities, many of them civilians, and one million others were displaced from areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.Israeli authorities say more than 80 Israeli soldiers and 47 civilians were killed.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in at least 11 areas of southern Lebanon on Monday night.

They included the town of Haris, where the health ministry said six people were killed and two injured.

Another four people were killed and one was injured in the town of Tallousseh, according to the ministry.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it “struck Hezbollah terrorists, dozens of launchers, and terrorist infrastructure throughout Lebanon”.

It also said it hit the Hezbollah launcher in Berghoz that was used to fire two mortars towards the disputed Mount Dov/Shebaa Farms area in the occupied Golan Heights.

The projectiles fell in an open area and nobody was hurt.“Hezbollah’s launches tonight constitute a violation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon,” it warned.

“The State of Israel demands that the relevant parties in Lebanon fulfil their responsibilities and prevent Hezbollah’s hostile activity from within Lebanese territory.”

Israel‘s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it was “determined to continue enforcing the ceasefire and will respond to every Hezbollah violation – minor and major”.

Hezbollah confirmed it carried out the mortar attack, saying it was a “defensive and warning response” to what it described as “repeated violations by the Israeli enemy of the ceasefire agreement”.

It said they included firing on civilians and conducting air strikes, as well breaches of Lebanese airspace by Israeli aircraft.

Earlier on Monday, Lebanese authorities said two people had been killed in Israeli strikes in the south of the country.

The health ministry said one person was killed in Marjaoun, where a motorcycle was reportedly targeted, while Lebanese State Security agency said a drone strike killed one of its personnel who was on duty in Nabatieh.

The Lebanese army also said a soldier was wounded when a drone targeted an army bulldozer near the north-eastern town of Hermel, in the Bekaa Valley.

The Israeli military said it had “operated in southern Lebanon in response to several acts by Hezbollah in Lebanon that posed a threat to Israeli civilians, in violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.

“We are aware of reports regarding a soldier from the Lebanese military who was injured in one of the strikes and the incident is under investigation,” it added.

Lebanese Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who helped negotiate the deal, said: “The aggressive actions carried out by Israeli occupation forces… represent a flagrant violation of the terms of the ceasefire.”

He added that Lebanese authorities had asked the committee formed to monitor enforcement of the ceasefire – comprising the US, France, Israel, Lebanon and the UN peacekeeping force (Unifl) – to declare “where it stands on ongoing violations… that have exceeded 54 breaches”.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot meanwhile told his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, in a call that there was a need “for all sides to respect the ceasefire in Lebanon”, the foreign ministry said.

Israeli public broadcaster Kan also reported that US envoy Amos Hochstein had warned Israel over alleged violations.

In a video posted online, Saar said: “We hear claims that Israel is violating the ceasefire understandings in Lebanon. On the contrary!”

He warned that Israel would take action when armed Hezbollah fighters were identified south of the Litani river or they attempted to move weapons.

“Their presence south of the Litani river is the most basic violation of the understandings,” he said. “They must move north immediately.”

“I want to emphasize – Israel is committed to the successful implementation of the ceasefire, but we will not accept a return to the situation as it stood [before the conflict].”

US officials said the ceasefire had been broadly successful, but there was “a lot more work to do.”

“We’ve gone from dozens of [Israeli] strikes down to one a day maybe two a day,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “We’re going to keep trying and see what we can do to get it down to zero.”

For its part, the Lebanese group said on Monday that it carried out a “preliminary defensive response” to the “repeated violations” of the ceasefire by attacking an Israeli military base in the hills of Kfar Chouba, a disputed area that Lebanon claims as its own.

Hezbollah said Israeli breaches of the truce that went into effect on Wednesday include deadly air raids across Lebanon, shooting at civilians in the south, and flying drones and jets in Lebanese airspace, including over the capital, Beirut.

The group said it launched its “warning” attack because “appeals by the relevant authorities to stop these violations did not succeed”.

The renewed violence highlights the fragility of the ceasefire, which ended a devastating war that killed nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon and saw Hezbollah fire rockets daily at Israel.

Earlier on Monday, Lebanon’s State Security agency said an Israeli rocket killed officer Mahdi Khreis in the southern district of Nabatieh, calling the incident a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire and a dangerous escalation.

Israeli bombardment in neighbouring Marjayoun killed another person, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said. A drone attack in the northeast of the country also injured a Lebanese soldier.

Although the ceasefire calls on all parties to hold their fire, Israel has been launching near-daily attacks against Lebanon.

Lebanese media have also reported that the Israeli military is using the truce to advance into new neighbourhoods in towns that it had entered during the war.

Life in Lebanon “started resuming” after the ceasefire was reached with hundreds of thousands of displaced people returning to their homes.

“Now, it seems with Israel’s insistence on violating the ceasefire, Hezbollah found it necessary to say … that these violations must stop or things might get out of control,” Hashem said.

After months of low-level hostilities, Israel launched an all-out war on Lebanon on September 23 with the stated aim of defeating Hezbollah.

The Lebanese group had been targeting Israeli military bases in northern Israel for months in an effort that it said was aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war on Gaza.

Israel assassinated top Hezbollah military and political leaders early in the war, including the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah.

It also levelled thousands of buildings and homes across Lebanon with its focus on southern and eastern Lebanon and the Beirut suburbs of Dahiyeh – areas where Hezbollah is popular.

Still, Hezbollah continued to fire rockets at northern and central Israel. The group also said it inflicted heavy losses on invading Israeli troops that crossed into the country.

The truce, which was brokered by the United States and France, stipulates that the Israeli military must withdraw from Lebanon within 60 days and Hezbollah must move away from the border with Israel until it is north of the Litani River.

During those two months, the Lebanese army is to deploy to southern Lebanon to be the only armed force there.

 Although Israel said its recent attacks are to “enforce” the truce, the agreement prohibits attacks by all sides.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who was Lebanon’s chief negotiator in the ceasefire talks, stressed on Monday that Israel has violated the truce more than 54 times, including by carrying out air raids and demolishing homes near the border.

“All these activities represent flagrant violations of the ceasefire agreement,” he said in a statement.On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz suggested the country is ready for further escalation, promising a “harsh response” to the Hezbollah attack.

“We promised to act against any violation of the ceasefire by Hezbollah – and that is exactly what we will do,” he said in a social media post.

But the US voiced confidence in the truce agreement on Monday. “Broadly speaking, it has been successful in stopping the fighting and getting us on a path where we are not seeing the daily loss of life that we had seen for two months prior,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

He said the US administration will work through a monitoring mechanism established by the agreement to address potential violations to the ceasefire.

In his first televised address since the truce went into effect, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said on Friday that he did not envision “problems or disagreement” with the army, which under the terms of the deal will deploy to southern Lebanon over 60 days as Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces withdraw.

The coordination between the resistance and the Lebanese army will be at a high level to implement the commitments of the agreement,” Qassem said.

“We will work to … strengthen Lebanon’s defensive capacities,” he said.

“The resistance will be ready to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of Lebanon’s weakness along with our partners … first and foremost the army,” he added.

The Lebanese army has sent some troops to the south and is preparing a detailed deployment plan to share with Lebanon’s cabinet, the Reuters news agency reported, citing security sources and officials.

Under the terms of the US-brokered truce, Israeli forces have 60 days to complete their withdrawal, which could delay a larger deployment of Lebanese army forces.

The Israeli military has issued restrictions on people returning to villages along Lebanon’s border with Israel and has fired at people in those villages in recent days, calling those movements a violation of the truce.

Both the Lebanese army and Hezbollah have accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire in those instances, and by launching an air strike north of the Litani River on Thursday.

Israeli warplanes launched air strikes on southern Lebanon on Friday, claiming they were targeting Hezbollah weapons.

Israeli forces stationed in the town of Khiam – which include at least four tanks – on Friday opened fire at people as they tried to bury a body in the cemetery.

Al Jazeera reported that, “there’s been gunshots towards civilians. There’s been artillery bombardment. There’s been Merkava tanks launching shells on several areas.

Qassem also declared a “divine victory” in the group’s war with Israel and claimed that the victory was even bigger than the one in 2006, when Hezbollah and Israel fought for 34 days.

He said Israeli forces killed and displaced thousands of people, including fighters, but also suffered heavy losses and failed to succeed in their goals. He said Hezbollah will continue to support Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel continues more than yearlong assault.

“To those that were betting that Hezbollah would be weakened, we are sorry, their bets have failed,” he said.

American and French officials, as members of a committee set up to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire, were in Beirut on Friday and met Lebanese army officials.

The Israeli army continues to tell Lebanese to evacuate areas near the border and refrain from going back to their homes.

In a summary of military operations against Hezbollah since the outbreak of the conflict in October 2023, the Israeli military on Friday claimed it has struck more than 12,500 Hezbollah targets, including 1,600 command centres and 1,000 weapons depots.

As part of its ground invasion of southern Lebanon which began in October, it said more than 100 special operations were carried out by 14 Israeli military brigade-level task forces.

It claimed to have killed at least 2,500 Hezbollah members and senior officials.

Lebanese health authorities say at least 3,961 people have been killed and 16,520 wounded in the fighting since October 2023.

He said Israel had set Hezbollah back “tens of years” and that it was not the same group it had been before.

There was a lot of focus on Israel’s strength in doing what it believed needed to be done – in Gaza, in Lebanon and elsewhere – despite international opposition.

And there was a lot of justification for the ceasefire too – it would allow Israel to “concentrate on the Iranian threat”, Netanyahu said, emphasising that his country would retain full military freedom to counter any new Hezbollah threat.

Israel’s army said on Tuesday it had hit 180 targets in Lebanon in the past 24 hours. Here on the Israeli side of the border, there have been constant warnings of rocket barrages and drone attacks from Lebanon.

Neither side wants this ceasefire deal to be seen as surrender.

But surrender is exactly what Netanyahu is being accused of by his political rivals – and some of his political allies too.

One poll yesterday suggested that more than 80% of Netanyahu’s support base opposed a deal, and residents in the north of Israel – large numbers of whom have been evacuated from their homes – are angry too.

Nationally, the picture was more split, however. One poll showed 37% of Israelis in favour of the ceasefire, 32% against and 31% saying they didn’t know.Shelly, an English teacher in Shlomi, said a ceasefire was an “irresponsible and hasty political decision”.

Rona Valency, evacuated from kibbutz Kfar Giladi on 8 October last year, told me she wanted to go home, and that a ceasefire was needed, but that the idea of Lebanese residents returning to these villages gave her “a real sense of unease and fright”.

From Kfar Giladi there are clear views of the Lebanese village of Odaisseh just across the valley.

“The only thing I can hope for is that Hezbollah will not infiltrate these villages and build a new network,” Rona told me.

“Apart from completely erasing these villages, and having no people there, there is no real physical thing that can make me feel safe. It’s just, you know, hope.”

Her husband, Onn, said the key to security lay, not in the terms of the ceasefire agreement, but in people “understand[ing] again, where we live; understand[ing] some things that a lot of us forgot”.

He said he didn’t trust the Lebanese army, nor the Americans, to restore security along the border.

“I trust only our army,” he said. “I think if the army won’t be there, it will be very, very hard to get the citizens back.”

This war has delivered a lot of military achievements for Israel – Hezbollah is weakened, its arsenals and infrastructure depleted, and its solidarity with Hamas broken.

But Israel’s armed forces are tired, its economy is suffering, and tens of thousands of its residents are displaced.

Still, many here are urging Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war in Lebanon – asking why the prime minister who has vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until “total victory” is signing a ceasefire in the north?

The Lebanese army was also quick to announce that it was preparing to deploy to the Israeli-invaded south and “carry out its mission” under United Nations Resolution 1701.The pledge to respect the 2006 resolution, which requires Hezbollah to move away from the border with Israel, is at the centre of the ceasefire agreement.The military called on people not to return to front-line villages until after the Israeli military withdraws. However, a tide of civilians has been heading for home.

In Mediterranean coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, with signs that the ceasefire is holding, thousands of people were making their way home.

Some were waving the “victory” sign, as for many, a return home is a victory in itself, she said. However, it remains unclear if all areas will be accessible, with the Israeli army saying that its forces are still operating in some parts and evacuation orders still in place.

The Lebanese and Israeli militaries have urged people to remain cautious and refrain from heading south while the Israeli military remains on the ground.However, Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called on people to re-inhabit the area. “I invite you to return to your homes,” he said in a televised speech. “Return to your land … even if you live above the rubble.”

A key Hezbollah ally who negotiated the ceasefire deal on behalf of the armed group, Berri also called for the swift election of a new Lebanese president, calling on political parties to come together to back a candidate “who unites rather than divides”.

Under the ceasefire, the Lebanese army should over the next 60 days deploy south of the Litani River, the southern region of the country that borders Israel. Israeli troops will gradually withdraw and Hezbollah will also pull back from the area.While reports suggest that the truce is holding, tension remains.Israel’s government, which approved the deal late on Tuesday, has emphasised that it will launch more attacks if there are any signs that terms are not honoured.On Wednesday, the Israeli military reported that it had “identified a vehicle with several suspects in a zone prohibited for movement in Lebanese territory”.It added that its troops had “fired to prevent them from advancing, and the suspects left the area”.Israel also unleashed a wave of strikes on Lebanon in the hours leading up to the start of the truce at 4am (02:00 GMT), with its warplanes bombing the country’s border crossings with Syria.

The US, Israel’s main ally, also bombed an unknown location in Syria, saying it targeted a weapons cache of an “Iranian-aligned” armed group.Iran, Hezbollah’s backer, on Wednesday welcomed news of the ceasefire. The foreign ministry expressed Tehran’s “firm support for the Lebanese government, nation and resistance”.

The ceasefire in Lebanon turns attention back to the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by Israel’s military since the Iran-backed Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023.Israeli forces maintain their assault on the besieged enclave. Several people were reported on Wednesday to have been killed in an attack on the al-Tabin School shelter for displaced people in Gaza City.

President Biden has said that he is prepared to make “another push” for a ceasefire in Gaza, but there are few signs that a quick breakthrough could be possible.

Hamas has not yet officially commented on the Lebanon agreement but has previously maintained that it is prepared for a ceasefire if Israeli troops withdraw from the enclave, people are allowed to return to their homes and more humanitarian aid is admitted.But Israel has rejected those terms, insisting that the 100 or so captives still held by Hamas must be returned.

In a televised address from Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Biden said the truce would begin at 4am local time (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday. The agreement did not relate to the ongoing Israeli operations in Gaza.

“Lasting security for the people of Israel and Lebanon cannot be achieved only on the battlefield. That’s why I directed my team to work with the governments of Israel and Lebanon to forge a

Barely an hour of the ceasefire announcement, The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that three projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel earlier, after Netanyahu addressed his country about the ceasefire deal.

In a post on Telegram, the IDF said that sirens sounded in the Western and Central Galilee areas and Shtula.They say after this, three projectiles were intercepted by their air force.

Speaking at the White House Biden said, “Let’s be clear, Israel did not launch this war, Lebanese people did not seek that war either, nor did the United States”.

He added that he had been directing assets to flow into the region, “to defend Israel and to deter our common enemy at a critical moment.”

Since the war began, more than 70,000 Israelis have been forced to live as refugees, Biden said, as they watch their communities “destroyed”.

He added that over 300,000 Lebanese people have also been forced to become refugees.

“This has been the deadliest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in decades.”

President Biden, speaking from the Rose Garden, opened by saying Lebanon and Israel have agreed to the ceasefire deal that the US helped to broker.When it takes effect, Biden said: “The fighting will end. Will end. This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”

He reiterated that civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities.

The US, with France and allies, has pledged to work with Israel and Lebanon to make sure it’s “fully” implemented, he said. He also made sure to emphasize that no US troops would be involved.

On Gaza, he said the people there also deserve an end to fighting.

“The people of Gaza have been through hell. Their world has been shattered.”

Biden said his administration will continue to push for a ceasefire in Gaza too.

Biden said that the team has collaborated with Israel and Lebanon to establish a ceasefire, which will bring the conflict to a close, effective from 02:00 GMT (04:00 local time) early Wednesday.

He stated that over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces.

People in both Lebanon and Israel will soon be able to safely return to their communities and begin rebuilding their lives, Biden says.

He added that if Hezbollah breaks the agreement, Israel has the right to self-defence in accordance with international law.

Biden turned to Gaza, saying people there “deserve an end to the fighting and displacement”.

“People of Gaza have been through hell,” and they have suffered “too much”, he adds.

“Hamas has a choice to make”, he adds, saying the “only way out” is to release the hostages taken from Israel last year.

He says in the coming days the US will make another push to “achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.”

This brings them closer to a vision of a future in the Middle East of peace, he says.

The US remains prepared to do “historic deals” for establishing a Palestinian state and a normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“I believe this agenda remains possible,” the US president says, and adds that he will spend the remaining days in office working “tirelessly” towards this.

Biden concluded by stating that today’s ceasefire announcement is a crucial step towards achieving peace and prosperity in the Middle East.

He applauded the decision made by the leaders of Lebanon and Israel to end the violence.”It reminds us that peace is possible,” he said.