by Associated Press
A ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah appeared to be holding, as residents in cars heaped with belongings streamed back toward southern Lebanon despite warnings from the Israeli and Lebanese military that they stay away from certain areas.
If it holds, the ceasefire would bring an end to nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.As a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to hold in Lebanon, fighting raged on in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 33 bodies had been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll in the nearly 14-month-long war to 44,282. The Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says more than half of the dead are women and children.
The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Hamas sites in hard-hit northern Gaza, including weapons storage facilities and military structures. It said it warned civilians to evacuate the area beforehand. The military has battled for weeks a resurgence of Hamas in the area, which was an early target of Israel’s offensive.
The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire has no direct bearing on the conflict in Gaza, where international mediators have struggled to secure a truce.
