Hezbollah fighters retreat north after truce, past Lebanese civilians heading home

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NABATIEH, Lebanon—Exhausted Hezbollah fighters filed past a throng of civilians through this small Lebanese city on Thursday, withdrawing northward a day after a cease-fire aimed at halting more than a year of fighting between the Iranian-backed militant group and Israel. As they pulled back, ordinary residents flowed south, past mountains of rubble, returning to homes they had fled as intensifying fighting engulfed the towns and villages of Lebanon’s south.

In Nabatieh some stopped to look at the ruins of the city’s century-old marketplace. The Hezbollah men said the fighting had been hard since Israeli ground troops pushed into Lebanon in September. One militant said his unit had been on the front for weeks without reinforcements and at times cut off from contact with commanders after Israeli attacks hobbled internal communications.

“I didn’t know if you were alive," said one fighter as he embraced a comrade. “I’m going home to shower. It’s been three months," said another.

Hezbollah’s withdrawal from areas along the Israeli border—coupled with a pullback of Israeli troops—over the next 60 days is central to the U.S.-brokered cease-fire agreement. The U.S., France and United Nations peacekeepers are charged with monitoring adherence to the terms of the truce. The cease-fire brought relief to millions of Lebanese after months of airstrikes that Israel said targeted Hezbollah leaders, equipment and installations.

The Israeli government hopes it will allow tens of thousands of civilians to return home as well after more than a year of Hezbollah missile and rocket attacks. Hezbollah, a Shiite militia and political party that the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization, started