Deal met with hope, scepticism

TDT | Paris

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The deal between the United States and Iran to end their war, negotiated in secret and still not revealed in detail, was greeted with scepticism but a measure of relief among ordinary people across the Middle East.

In Lebanon, AFP saw displaced people preparing to return to homes they fled in the south of the country, despite Israeli ministers declaring that they do do feel bound by the agreement to halt their own offensive against Hezbollah.

At the Qasmiyeh bridge, gateway to the Tyre area that Israel has pounded in recent weeks, dozens of cars packed with mattresses and suitcases were passing through a Lebanese army checkpoint, passengers flashing victory signs.

Alaa Merahi, who was driving with his wife and children, told AFP: “We’re returning to our south, to the free land... we can’t do without the southern land.”

Many expressed hope this would be a “final return” after hundreds of thousands of residents were repeatedly forced to flee Israeli bombings and evacuation orders.

At a crowded school-turned-shelter in the coastal city of Sidon, displaced people sat in classrooms drinking coffee, waiting for official authorisation to return.

‘We’ll set up a tent’

“Our joy is greater than the whole world,” said Haifa Sherri, who was displaced from the town of Khirbet Selm near the border.

She said, however, she would hold off on returning until the situation became clearer.

Lebanon’s army urged displaced residents to delay their return to southern border villages, while several municipalities told people to await instructions.

But in Sidon, Hanaa Jaffal said she planned to returning on Monday to Ansar, close to Nabatieh and the Israeli advance.

“There’s nothing like returning to your land, even if the houses are no longer there,” she said.

“We’ll set up a tent and stay in it,” she said, paying tribute to Iran, which backs Hezbollah and which insisted Lebanon must be included in any peace deal.

On the other side of the border in Israel, reactions were more mixed, but many expressed scepticism that peace would ensue.

“I don’t expect this ceasefire to last. I don’t think that they considered Israeli needs and I’m personally upset about it,” said Naomi Haddar, chief executive of a medical non-profit.