A fragile calm in Lebanon as a US-brokered truce holds and families head home

BEIRUT (AP) — A fragile calm settled over parts of Lebanon on Friday as a 10-day ceasefire brokered by the United States took hold between Israel and Hezbollah, prompting thousands of displaced families to begin the journey home — even as uncertainty, destruction and Israeli warnings against going back to parts of southern Lebanon clouded their return.

By early morning, cars were backed up for kilometers on the route leading south to the damaged Qasmiyeh bridge over the Litani River, a key crossing linking the southern coastal city of Tyre to the north. Vehicles piled high with mattresses, suitcases and salvaged belongings crept forward through a single reopened lane, hastily repaired after an Israeli airstrike just a day earlier.

Drivers heading back to their villages along coastal highways cheered each other, flashed victory signs and exchanged blessings.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war displaced more than a million people. Despite warnings from Lebanese officials that they should not immediately attempt to return to their homes, many began moving toward southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire was declared. The truce appeared to be largely holding overnight.

Israel and Hezbollah have fought several wars and have been fighting on and off since the day after the start of the Gaza war. Israel and Lebanon reached a deal to end that war in November 2024, but Israel had kept up near-daily strikes in what it says is an effort to prevent the Iran-backed militant group from regrouping. That escalated into another invasion after Hezbollah again began firing missiles at Israel in response to its war on Iran.

In southern villages like Jibsheet, a trickle of residents returned to flattened apartment blocks and streets littered with chunks of concrete, twisted aluminum shutters and dangling electrical wires.

“I feel free being back,” said Zainab Fahas, 23. “But look, they destroyed everything — the square, the houses, the shops, everything.”

Many did not believe that their ordeal was really over.

“Israel doesn’t want peace,” said Ali Wahdan, 27, a medic walking on crutches over the rubble of the emergency services’ headquarters in Jibsheet. He was badly wounded in an Israeli airstrike that hit the building without warning during the first week of the war.

“I wish it were different," he said. “But this war will continue.”

In the neighborhood of Haret Hreik in Beirut’s southern suburb, entire buildings had been reduced to rubble after weeks of intense Israeli strikes. Ahmad Lahham, 48, waved the yellow Hezbollah flag standing on a mountain of rubble that used to be his apartment building, which had also housed a branch of Hezbollah’s financial arm, Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

“We are at the service of the fighters," said Lahham, pledging his loyalty to the group.

He praised Iran, saying Tehran's pressure in its talks with the U.S. led to the truce, and condemned Lebanon’s direct talks with Israel.

“Only the Iranians stood with us, no one else,” he said, calling Lebanon’s leaders “the leadership of shame.”

A local government official in Haret Hreik said Israel struck the neighborhood 62 times over the last six weeks.

“We’ve been able to clear up the rubble of the partially damaged buildings, but for those destroyed, we will need special equipment,” Sadek Slim, the neighborhood’s deputy mayor, told a press briefing.

The area was gridlocked with traffic, with people coming back to check on their homes and Hezbollah supporters zooming on scooters, waving the group’s flag. Cars packed with families, with their possessions strapped to the roof or bursting from open trunks, were sitting in traffic for hours Friday afternoon on the highway south as a dust storm filled the air. Aid workers passed out much-needed bottles of water to those stuck in traffic.

Meanwhile, in Al-Najda al Shaabiya Hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, officials said Thursday was one of the heaviest days of Israeli strikes since this latest Israel-Hezbollah war began.

Hospital Director Mona Abou Zeid said the wounded continued arriving from nearby Israeli strikes until around an hour after the ceasefire took effect at midnight.

Among those wounded in the bombardment on Nabatiyeh Thursday was 33-year-old Mahmoud Sahmarani, who said he stepped outside his home to buy some charcoal for his shisha water pipe when an Israeli strike hit his five-story building, killing his father and cousin as they were peeling potatoes for lunch. All that remains of his apartment is rubble, leaving him and the rest of his family homeless.

“Israel should have withdrawn from Lebanon,” he said from his hospital bed, his left eye swollen shut and his head swaddled in bandages. “If we don’t get them out, they will continue to kill us.”

In downtown Beirut, tents still line some areas as some families begin to leave, while others wait, weighing the risks of returning south.

A tricycle piled with mattresses weaves through the camp, signaling the first departures after a fragile ceasefire.

“Our homes in the south are gone, destroyed,” said Ali Balhas, from Siddiqeen town in the Tyre province. “Israel is deceptive. You never really know its policies or how it will act toward people."

“I have six children here, and I can’t leave that quickly. Once there is more safety, we will try to take the children and go back" to our village he said.

Amira Ayyash, a woman from Qaaqaiat al-Jisr in the Nabatiyeh province, decided to wait and assess the situation before returning home.

“We do not know at what hour they might strike us, for they are treacherous. So we decided to take it slowly,” she said.

Ahmad Ramadan, 42, a father of three stuck in the bottleneck, said he initially planned to wait out the ceasefire at his cousin’s now-crowded apartment in Beirut. But the desire to see what had become of his house in the southern city of Tyre overcame him.

“We are going to check on our house, just quickly, and come back. We just need to know if there’s damage,” he said. “Even if we’re waiting for hours here it’s worth knowing what happened.”

A member of Hezbollah stands guard next to a destroyed building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Friday, April 17, 2026, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A displaced woman holding her dog sits in her tent in Beirut, Lebanon, awaiting an official order from Hezbollah to return to her home in south Lebanon following a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese army bulldozers reconstruct part of a destroyed bridge that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Qasmiyeh near Tyre city, south Lebanon, to facilitate the return of displaced people to their villages following a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Displaced people returning to their villages following a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, cross the destroyed Qasmiyeh bridge near Tyre city, south Lebanon, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Two girls chant slogans as one holds an image of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Friday, April 17, 2026, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

BANGKOK (AP) — Floodwaters in Thailand ’s capital were slowly receding on Monday after nearly continuous rainfall over the weekend, although some neighborhoods and major roads remained inundated.

Rain continued intermittently, but Bangkok city officials said conditions had improved enough to accelerate drainage efforts. Water levels in four main canals had risen too high over the weekend to take in runoff from surrounding communities.

More rain was forecast across much of Thailand, although Bangkok was expected to receive less. Cambodia and Myanmar were also experiencing severe weather.

The weekend flooding affected 329,000 households, or about 700,000 people, the Bangkok Flood Control Center reported, according to Deputy Gov. Tavida Kamolvej. Thai media reported two flood-related deaths in the city and at least 10 nationwide.

Gov. Chadchart Sittipunt declared a flood emergency Saturday across all 50 city districts, although some were relatively unscathed. He said authorities were prioritizing assistance for vulnerable residents, including older people and those with disabilities, by delivering supplies or evacuating them. City officials said nearly 7,000 people were staying in shelters.

Neighborhoods in eastern Bangkok were hit hardest. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul donned white rain boots Sunday night to inspect a heavily flooded housing estate in Bang Kapi district and help distribute relief supplies.

Water was about knee-deep Monday near a train station and shopping mall in Bang Kapi. Despite intermittent downpours, shoppers waded through the water carrying bags, backpacks and boxes of groceries. Some traveled to and from the station in a small boat provided by the mall.

For Naowarat Supanikorn, a 55-year-old maid who shares a single-story house with three dogs and six cats, the flooding was more than an inconvenience.

She said she realized at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday that water was seeping into her home.

“I had to take my dogs and cats out,” she said. “I had to leave them with my neighbor. I have taken them back today because they said the sun would come out, but it looks like the rain will come back.”

She said the flooding in her neighborhood reached above her hips at its highest, and had since dropped to about knee-level. She said the bigger problem is that she has lost her job working at a condominium.

“My workplace also said if I can’t come to work, they’re happy to take my resignation. So I thought, that’s fine, I’ll quit.”

To try to generate some income, she bought supplies to make some food she can sell streetside, but business is slow in the flooded conditions.

“It’s stressful. If the bills come, I’d be cooked, because I don’t have work now. If I have to pay for water or electricity now it would be bad,” she said. “I’m not worried about me but I’m worried about my pets. I’ve lived with them my whole life. They’re my priority. It’s ok if I don’t have work and starve myself, but I’d like help for my pets.”

The flood also has had knock-on effects, including panic buying of food, disrupted supply chains for food and other items, and staffing problems at various enterprises whose employees were unable to get to their jobs.

The Thai Air Force announced it was sending 69 ground personnel to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport to help clear a backlog of passenger luggage caused largely by airport workers being unable to get to their place of work.

“This deployment is a vital mission to care for, assist, and facilitate travelers — including tourists from around the world — ensuring smooth operations and preventing delays in ground services, thereby upholding the nation’s positive image,” the air force said.

The airport previously attributed the baggage pileup to “insufficient staffing to support ground handling operations” and problems with some baggage carts.

The disruptions delayed some departures and forced arriving passengers to wait longer than usual for their luggage, with baggage from several flights still undelivered, the airport said.

The government declared special holidays on Monday and Tuesday for state offices. It advised state enterprises, financial institutions, private businesses and hospitals to determine whether they needed to remain open.

Thailand’s meteorological agency forecast heavy to very heavy rain across several parts of the country. It warned residents, particularly in northern, central and eastern regions, to prepare for possible flash floods, river overflows, forest runoff and landslides, especially near waterways, foothills and low-lying areas.

In neighboring Myanmar, at least 10 people were killed and dozens were missing after heavy rain triggered widespread flooding and landslides in the southern coastal region of Tanintharyi, local media reported.

Dawei township recorded 346 millimeters (13.62 inches) of rain Monday, breaking an 80-year-old record. Myanmar’s Meteorology Department warned that conditions could worsen as the storm front moved closer to Yangon.

Flash floods struck at least 10 provinces in Cambodia, affecting 44,889 families and forcing nearly 4,000 people to evacuate, according to disaster management officials.

The agency overseeing the archaeological park in Siem Reap province, home to the centuries-old Angkor temple complex, said it was operating water gates and diversion systems to reduce the risk of flooding.

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Associated Press writer Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia contributed to this report.

Residents of a building look out at the flooded street after heavy rain in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Rescuers evacuate a patient from a flooded area to a safer place in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Rescuers evacuate people from a flooded area to a safer place in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

The streets are flooded after a heavy rain, in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

People wade through a flooded street after a heavy rain in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)