Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Even before the ceasefire had taken hold, Zaynab Bzeih had begun the journey back to her home in Zebqine in south Lebanon. She and her family arrived in the early hours of Wednesday from the northern city of Tripoli, where they had fled to escape Israel’s intense bombardment.
Her father was reluctant at first – Israel’s air strikes had intensified in the hours before the ceasefire was set to begin. The road to the south was still dangerous. They reached Zebqine at 4.30am, just 30 minutes after the ceasefire took effect.
“I told my father I would walk to the south if they left me behind,” she said. “We were the first ones back in the village.”
Thousands like Zaynab had taken the long road to return home, after more than 13 months of border fighting that Israel escalated into all-out war on September 23, followed by a ground invasion a week later. As of November 24, at least 3,768 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
Early on Wednesday, the motorway to the south was clogged with cars full of families, many with mattresses hastily tied to the roofs. This was despite warnings from the Israeli army urging people not to return to villages they had been forcibly evicted from during the war.
Evidence of the conflict was visible everywhere. From Beirut, drivers heading south passed through Dahieh’s lingering thick smoke, the remnants of a night of heavy Israeli bombing just before the ceasefire began.
Not surprisingly, emotions ran high: families shed tears of joy, while groups of people cheered passing cars. Some men handed out posters of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the head of the Amal movement – a Hezbollah ally – who negotiated the ceasefire on behalf of the Lebanese militant group. Several cars waved Hezbollah and Amal flags.
Yet, those returning knew they had little to go back to.
Zaynab’s village has borne the brunt of the war. Israeli air strikes levelled several houses, leaving behind piles of rubble and shrapnel mixed with the belongings of their owners – football jerseys, teddy bears and books. There is no electricity or water in the village, but Zaynab is hopeful that Hezbollah will help residents rebuild quickly.
“We can rely on the Resistance,” she said, defiantly. “All houses are uninhabitable, either destroyed or badly damaged. It’s a mix of sadness and joy. Joy to come back to our home, but sadness for all the losses and the martyrs.”
Just hours after the ceasefire took effect, The National drove through south Lebanon and visited two other villages, Bint Jbeil and Qana. Scenes of massive destruction were repeated across the southern region. In Bint Jbeil, an Israeli strike had reduced a mosque to rubble, splitting its minaret in two, leaving the upper part delicately perched on top of a pile of debris. The adjacent hospital was also damaged. Repeated attacks had obliterated entire neighbourhoods.
“Why did they even target this neighbourhood?” asked Ahmad Halloum, 55, who had come back after weeks of displacement only to find his hometown in Qana reduced to rubble. “It’s a residential area with only old houses – nothing to do with anything military. This makes me want to cry.”
Shocking destruction
The UN has denounced patterns of destruction in Lebanon similar to those seen in Gaza, where civilians “pay the ultimate price”.
“We are seeing the same patterns that we saw in Gaza, the same means and methods of warfare being used,” Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN's human rights commissioner, said last month.
In November, UN peacekeepers deployed along the Israeli-Lebanon border said they had witnessed the “shocking” destruction of border Lebanese villages. Israel said it was attacking “terrorist infrastructure sites” and accused Hezbollah of using the civilian population as a “human shield”. It repeated its war goal was to “degrade Hezbollah” and allow the return of northern residents displaced by Hezbollah attacks.
In a televised speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory over Hezbollah, which the Lebanese militant group denied.
From a sports stadium in Bint Jbeil, Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah MP, said that Israel had “failed' to achieve its objectives” in Lebanon, meaning it did “not win the war”. Mr Fadlallah declared victory in front of a group of reporters, speaking in the same stadium where late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah once delivered a famous speech following the Israeli army's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
Not only Hezbollah was impacted by the war. Destroyed homes, collapsed water towers and downed power lines are proofs of the price civilians have had to pay as a result of the group's war. In Lebanon, Israeli raids have destroyed at least 37 villages. A World Bank report has estimated the cost of damage at $2.8 billion, with more than 99,000 houses partially or fully destroyed.
“We will stay here and rebuild whatever happens,” Zaynab said.
The five pillars of Islam
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
TOP 5 DRIVERS 2019
1 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 10 wins 387 points
2 Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 4 wins, 314 points
3 Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 3 wins, 260 points
4 Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 2 wins, 249 points
5 Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1 win, 230 points
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
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BMW M5 specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
GAC GS8 Specs
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