Live: Thousands return home as Lebanon ceasefire takes hold

Our liveblog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are today's key developments:

-Many Lebanese took to the streets on Wednesday morning to celebrate the ceasefire with Israel as displaced families began heading back to their homes in southern Lebanon. 

-Lebanon's army said on Wednesday it is preparing to deploy to the south of the country, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect. The army also asked in a statement that residents of border villages delay returning home until the Israeli military withdraws.

-The US has pledged its support for the Lebanese army toward implementing the truce, and said the international community also has an obligation to lend its assistance. The Lebanese army is preparing to resume its authority, along with UNIFIL, in the South Litani region.

-Hamas is ready to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a senior official in the Palestinian group said, hailing the ceasefire that took hold in Lebanon. Egyptian security officials will be in Israel on Thursday to resume those talks, the Reuters news agency said. 

-US President Joe Biden has provisionally approved a $680m weapons sale to Israel, which was conditioned on Israel accepting a ceasefire in Lebanon. This is not a previously announced weapons package. 

-Provisions for immunity from prosecution at the International Criminal Court apply to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday. 

-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will notify the International Criminal Court that Israel is going to appeal the decision to issue arrest warrants against him and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing an unidentified Israeli official.

Lebanese-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan - America's Arab capital - have sent a letter to US President-elect Donald Trump thanking him for ushering in the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. 

The letter, dated Tuesday but made public on Wednesday, expresses gratitude for Trump for "applying the necessary political influence" to secure the truce.

It's unclear what deliberate role Trump played, if at all. 

A senior Biden administration official told reporters on Tuesday that the Trump team was only briefed on the deal before it was announced. 

The Palestinian health ministry on Wednesday said the number of known dead in Gaza now stands at 44,282 since 7 October, 2023. 

1,047 of them were medical personnel. 

There are 104,900 wounded, and officials estimate that 10,000 others are missing, likely under the rubble. 

As the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon enters its first full day, Palestiniansfrom Gaza have joined Lebanese in celebrating the deal online as they thank them for their solidarity in their fight against Israel.

Over 3,800 people were killed in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon over the past year, since hostilities began a day after the outbreak of the war on Gaza on 7 October 2023 after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel. 

As the ceasefire went into effect in the early hours of Wednesday morning, social media was flooded with posts of Lebanese returning to their homes in the south, and those worldwide celebrating their homecoming - even in the Gaza Strip. 

Read more: People from Rafah to the southern suburbs of Beirut welcomed ceasefire deal in Lebanon while hoping for similar outcome in Gaza

The US is prepared to lend assistance to the Lebanese army to ensure it can perform its role within the scope of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, a US official told the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed.

The Lebanese army is expected to move into the country's south over the next 60 days while Hezbollah fighters move back toward the Litani River. Only then will Israeli soldiers leave Lebanon. 

The official, US envoy Amos Hochstein, said the international community will also have an obligation to support the Lebanese army.

Within Lebanon, Hezbollah has long been the far larger and better-equipped fighting force. The US and its allies want to reverse that. 

هوكستين لـ #الجديد: سندعم الجيش اللبناني بشكل أوسع والولايات المتحدة هي الداعم الأكبر له كما سنعمل مع المجتمع الدولي جنباً إلى جنب

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) November 27, 2024

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has designated a successor in the event of his death or incapacity to remain in the role. 

Abbas issued a constitutional declaration that the president of the national council, Rawhi Fattouh, will assume his duties if the position of the presidency is vacant, Wafa has reported. 

Fattouh would become interim president for 90 days - or a further renewal of that period - until elections can be held. 

"We believe that the dignity of the homeland is nothing but a reflection of the dignity of each of its members," the 89-year-old Abbas wrote in his decree. 

Abbas has been the Palestinian Authority president since 2005. 

The Reuters news agency is reporting that Israel has shot down a drone that crossed into Israel from Egypt, with weapons on board. 

Hezbollah has vowed that its "forces remain fully prepared to counter Israeli aggression and ambitions" in its first statement since Wednesday's ceasefire with Israel came into effect.

The group said it will continue to monitor Israeli forces to ensure they withdraw from Lebanon within the 60-day period as stipulated in the agreement. 

Hezbollah referred to the ceasefire as a "glorious occasion", framing it as a major Israeli concession and ultimate defeat.

Since 8 October 2023, the group said it carried out more than 4637 military operations over 417 days "at a rate of 11 operations per day".

"These operations targeted the sites, barracks and bases of the Israeli enemy army, and Israeli cities and settlements starting from the Lebanese-Palestinian border to beyond the city of Tel Aviv, and also included heroic confrontation of the enemy forces’ ground incursions into Lebanese territory," Hezbollah said. 

An Egyptian security delegation will be travelling to Israel on Thursday in an effort to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal, two Egyptian security sources told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said he would focus on a ceasefire deal in Gaza now that an Israel-Lebanon truce has been reached. 

The UN's World Food Programme has announced that no bakeries remain operational in central Gaza. 

#عاجل: نائب المتحدث باسم الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة: "برنامج الأغذية العالمي أعلن إغلاق جميع المخابز وسط غزة".

— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) November 27, 2024

According to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of 25 November, only four out of 19 bakeries supported by WFP remained operational across Gaza, and all of them were in the Gaza governorate, which spans the lowermost portion of northern Gaza as well as parts of central Gaza.

The WFP said these bakeries resumed production at 50 percent capacity after receiving a limited amount of fuel delivered from southern Gaza.

In Deir al Balah and Khan Younis in the south, all eight bakeries are closed due to lack of flour "while partners are prioritizing household-level distribution with the limited amount of flour received," WFP said. 

Wednesday's Israel-Lebanon ceasefire may have brought the air raids to an end, but experts say Lebanon's rubble and devastation, along with its domestic political crisis, may hold it back for years to come.

"Many of the country's displaced may not be able to return home for months, as Israel has razed entire villages near the blue line border," David Wood, senior analyst for Lebanon at the International Crisis Group, said. "Meanwhile, Hezbollah's domestic foes claim they will no longer accept the group's dominance over Lebanese politics - a pledge that promises still more instability."

"The challenges are the same as 18 years ago, namely: how to make sure that both parties comply [with the ceasefire] in the long term, and what to do with Hezbollah’s military capabilities, which constitute a threat to the security of Israel, and potentially other Lebanese, whether they are present on the border or a few kilometres away," Heiko Wimmen, project director for Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon at the International Crisis Group, said. 

The Financial Times is reporting that US President Joe Biden has provisionally approved a $680m weapons sale to Israel, which was conditioned on Israel accepting a ceasefire in Lebanon. 

This is not a previously announced weapons package. 

The transfer would include JDAMS, which provide precision guidance for "dumb" bombs, as well as hundreds of small-diameter explosives, the Financial Times has reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that Israel has notified the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it will appeal the arrest warrants issued against him and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. 

Reporting by Reuters

A French organisation and a French-Palestinian woman filed a complaint on Tuesday against the French managers of two pro-Israel NGOs for "complicity in genocide and incitement to commit genocide in Gaza", according to a statement shared with Middle East Eye.  

The complaint against Israel is Forever and Tzav-9 targets actions by French nationals to block humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the coastal strip devastated by Israel's onslaught, which has killed more than 44,282 people since October 2023.

The plaintiffs are the French Jewish Union for Peace and a woman who has 13 family members in the Gaza Strip. They are supported by the Urgence Palestine NGO.

The complaint, filed with the senior investigating judge of the crimes against humanity division of the Paris judicial court, is the first precedent under the grounds of genocide, the most serious in the hierarchy of crimes, before the French courts.

In the 70-page complaint, the petitioners denounce "the organisation, participation and call to participate in concrete actions blocking humanitarian aid to the occupied territory of Gaza, in particular by physically preventing the passage of trucks at border crossings controlled by the Israeli army." 

READ MORE: First Gaza genocide case against French nationals filed in Paris

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will notify the International Criminal Court that Israel is going to appeal the decision to issue arrest warrants against him and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing an unidentified Israeli official.