Israel Lifts Restrictions In Northern Israel As Ceasefire Holds; Hezbollah Chief Claims ‘Victory’

The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire began four days ago, and has held enough to where for the fist time in more than a year tens of thousands of Israelis who’ve remained forcibly evacuated form their homes in the north can return to assess the situation.

The IDF Home Front Command on Saturday announced for the first time in many months that it is easing restrictions in northern Israel, allowing larger gatherings and for schools to finally reopen, in the clearest indicator so far that the ceasefire is holding and both sides are taking it seriously.

“Under the changes, schools in the northern frontier communities and the north Golan Heights will now be able to operate if adequate shelter can be reached in time,” Israeli media writes. 

All restrictions previously in place throughout all areas of the country have now been lifted, which was approved by Defense Minister Israel Katz. Some 80,000 Israelis had been displaced by daily Hezbollah rocket and drone fire in the north.

On the other side of the border, tens of thousands of previously displaced Lebanese have been viewing their homes and communities for the first time in months. The opening couple days of the ceasefire, which took effect early on Nov.27, saw reports of some intermittent fire – especially from the Israeli side.

The 60-day US and French-brokered ceasefire has been widely viewed as off to a successful start, ending over 14 months of cross-border fire between Iran-linked Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Despite the assassinations of its upper-tier leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah who died in an Israeli airstrike on September 27, the new head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, claimed ‘victory’ in the war. Yet Hezbollah’s top command ranks have been devastated, suffering historic losses after over two months of bombs falling on Beirut.

Still, he hailed that the group had achieved a “divine victory” in a Friday speech. “To those that were betting that Hezbollah would be weakened, we are sorry, their bets have failed,” he said.

But he also pledged that the ceasefire deal with Israel will be upheld, and that Hezbollah leadership had agreed to it “with heads held high.” Qassem explained Hezbollah had “approved the deal, with the resistance strong in the battlefield, and our heads held high with our right to defend [ourselves].”

A Reuters report at the end of this week claimed that Hezbollah’s internal numbers are that it lost 4,000 of its fighters, which is a much higher tally than what the Lebanese government lists.

But what is very evident is that the death and destruction surpasses even the 2006 Lebanon war, which up till this year was the deadliest on Lebanese soil in the last several decades.