Lebanese leaders urge Israel to pull back, tell displaced to go home

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati appeals to Israel to fully commit to a newly agreed ceasefire and “withdraw from all the regions and positions it occupied.”

“I hope this will be a new page for Lebanon, I hope the coming days will lead to the election of a president,” says Mikati.

Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who negotiated the truce on behalf of Hezbollah, urges displaced residents to return home, despite official instructions from the Israeli and Lebanese army for those who fled southern Lebanese villages to wait until troops withdraw.

“Return to your land and your birthplace,” he says.

Berri calls the the last months of war “the most dangerous” in the history of Lebanon, apparently outstripping the civil war from 1975 to 1990 that nearly destroyed the entire country, but praises the Lebanese people for showing unity and urges the swift election of a president.