Thousands of Lebanese return to their homes as Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire takes hold

Thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants returned home Wednesday as a ceasefire took hold, driving cars stacked with personal belongings and defying warnings from Lebanese and Israeli troops to avoid some areas.

If it endures, the ceasefire would end nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated in mid-September into all-out war and threatened to pull Hezbollah’s patron, Iran, and Israel’s closest ally, the United States, into a broader conflagration.