Hundreds of displaced residents waited Friday for bulldozers to reopen the Qasmiyeh bridge in south Lebanon, hours after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire took effect.
The bridge over the Litani River, a main route between southern areas and the rest of the country, was bombed by Israel shortly before the truce began at midnight. Three bulldozers working under Lebanese army supervision started filling the crater at dawn.
As soon as the crossing became passable, motorcycles and then cars moved through single file. By 9 a.m., the highway between Sidon and Tyre was backed up for kilometers, with tens of thousands of vehicles heading south, many carrying mattresses, kitchenware, and blankets.
Many of those returning had fled at the start of the war and said they did not know whether their homes were still standing.
“We set off an hour before the ceasefire took effect so we could reach the bridge once it opens, allowing us to return to our town,” said Amani Atrash, 37, who had been waiting with her family in a line of cars northeast of Tyre. “The wait is very difficult because we want to get there as quickly as possible.”
The war began on March 2 after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel, which the group said was retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the outset of the Middle East war. Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese authorities said the war killed more than 2,100 people and displaced more than 1 million, especially from Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut’s southern suburbs and south Lebanon.
Despite warnings against returning to the south from Hezbollah, Lebanese officials, and the Israeli army, displaced people continued moving back.