Over 800,000 displaced Lebanese returning home after war: UN

More than 800,000 people displaced by war in Lebanon have begun returning to their hometowns following a lull in violence amid the Israel-Hezbollah war, the United Nations said.

The announcement late on Tuesday came as Lebanon and Israel began a new round of US-sponsored talks in Rome aimed at ending the fighting, which are scheduled to run until Thursday.

UN humanitarian agency the OCHA said “821,077 people had begun the return to their areas of origin as of 30 July”, but added that more than 360,000 remained displaced, around 26,000 of them in government shelters.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the wider Middle East war in March by firing rockets at Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people and displaced more than a million at the peak.

Violence has decreased since the signing in June of a preliminary US-Iran agreement on the wider regional conflict, which includes a ceasefire in Lebanon, and following a US-sponsored deal between Israel and Lebanon.

But Lebanon continues to report intermittent Israeli strikes and shelling, as well as detonations of explosives and demolitions in southern villages, with Israeli troops occupying a swathe of the area.

The OCHA said damage to water and electricity infrastructure from the war has severely affected access to water for more than 700,000 people in south Lebanon, home for most of those displaced by the war.

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During negotiations in Washington in June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon’s south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones”.

But Hezbollah has rejected the agreement and refuses to disarm, with leader Sheikh Naim Qassem saying the direct negotiations will bring “nothing but shame, humiliation, and successive compromises” for Lebanon.