Lebanon warns displaced against returning as Israel vows to keep troops in south

Lebanon warns displaced against returning as Israel vows to keep troops in south Authorities in southern Lebanon warned people displaced by three months of war against rushing home on Monday as Israel said it would not withdraw troops from the south despite the US-Iran ceasefire deal. In south Lebanon, where Israeli forces have occupied a self-declared security zone, municipal councils issued statements calling on residents to hold off on returning, according to reports in Lebanon’s National News Agency. In Nabatieh, a devastated city in the country’s south , Mohammed Daqdouq said he had returned on Monday morning to check on his home. "We'll need a lifetime to rebuild - to rebuild it again and bring Nabatieh back to how it was," he said. Mona Mazeh, a displaced woman sheltering in Beirut's Hamra district, had no immediate plans to return to her village near the southern city of Tyre. "Frankly, we are hesitant; Israel cannot be trusted," she said. When announcing the deal early on Monday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator between Tehran and Washington, said that the pact called for "the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon". Meanwhile, senior Israeli officials slammed the newly announced agreement, saying it does not bind Israel. The Israeli military has been razing villages in southern Lebanon for weeks, saying it is acting against Hezbollah militants embedded in civilian areas of the predominantly Shia Muslim region. Lebanon’s health ministry says Israel’s war on the country has killed at least 3,783 people and wounded 11,699 others between 2 March and 14 June. Displaced residents pack up at a school turned into a shelter in Sidon ahead of their return to their villages in southern Lebanon, 15 June 2026 (Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP)