File photo of south Lebanon

AP DEIR MIMAS (Lebanon)

Israeli forces withdrew from border villages in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, under a deadline spelled out in a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. Lebanese soldiers moved into the areas from where the Israeli troops pulled out and began clearing roadblocks set up by Israeli forces and checking for unexploded ordnance. They blocked the main road leading to the villages, preventing anyone from entering while the military was looking for any explosives left behind.

Most of the villagers waited by the roadside for permission to go and check on their homes but some pushed aside the roadblocks to march in. Many of their houses were demolished during the more than year-long conflict or in the two months after November's ceasefire agreement when Israeli forces were still occupying the area.

The Israeli troops, however, have remained in five strategic overlook points inside Lebanon - a sore point with Lebanese officials and the militant Hezbollah group, who have maintained that Israel is required to make a full withdrawal by Tuesday. For the first time since October 2023, hundreds of villagers were gathered near the Lebanese villages of Deir Mimas and Kfar Kila on Tuesday morning as an Israeli drone flew overhead as they waited.