'This is victory' After a year of fighting and thousands killed, militia claims win

The Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah chose an iconic spot for his victory speech: the sports stadium in Bint Jbeil, not far from the Israel-Lebanon border, where in 2000 crowds roared as the group's then leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that it had ended Israel's 18-year-long occupation of south Lebanon.

- William Christou

"Today we come to announce from Bint Jbeil and with confidence that we have won over the Israeli killing machine," he told journalists on Wednesday, a few hours after a ceasefire with Israel took effect. Another war with Israel had ended, but there were no crowds in the bleachers, the stadium was covered in shrapnel and Nasrallah was dead.

Cars carrying thousands of the displaced were arriving to find their city and homes in ruins. Bint Jbeil, proudly touted as the "capital of resistance" after fighters held off Israeli forces for 33 days in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, had been battered. Relentless Israeli strikes on the city left it without water, electricity and a functioning hospital - scenes repeated in villages all across south Lebanon.

"It is true that there is destruction, martyrs and sacrifices, but in front of the goal set by the enemy [Israel], the price paid was worth the great results that were achieved," Fadlallah said, rattling off a list of goals he said Hezbollah had deprived Israel of, including the occupation of south Lebanon and destruction of Hezbollah itself.

Hezbollah had set one task for itself when it launched rockets at Israel on 8 October 2023: force a ceasefire in Gaza.

On Wednesday, after more than 13 months of fighting, Hezbollah stopped firing rockets and signed its own ceasefire with Israel - but Israel's campaign in Gaza raged on.