“We couldn’t sleep anymore,” confide members of the Franco-Lebanese community in Paris

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect Wednesday morning after more than a year of cross-border hostilities and two months of open warfare. In the south of Paris, customers of a Lebanese restaurant are delighted with this truce and hope that it will continue.

Ayman’s heart is divided between Lebanon where he was born, and France where he arrived in 1976 in the middle of the civil war in Lebanon. “France and Lebanon are the same thing for mesays Ayman. So we have an eye on our work and our daily activities and an ear on what’s going on.”

The announcement of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah on Tuesday, November 26, he welcomed with caution and with a thought for his fellow Lebanese doctors killed by Israeli strikes. “It’s a truce to try to apply a resolution which has already been passed by the United Nations and accepted by everyone”continues Ayman.

“I’m relieved, we can’t say anything else and we’re crossing our fingers. We’re going to keep them crossed and I really hope that the international community will get fully involved and throw all its weight behind it so that this truce turns into reality. in peace.”

Ayman, Franco-Lebanese doctor

at franceinfo

Still clinging to his cell phone, Samir scrolls through a multitude of photos of his ruined village located in the Beccah valley. “We went through difficult times, explains Samir. Our parents, our villages are under fire every day, every evening, every night… We couldn’t sleep.” The waiter in his thirties is also full of hope: “It’s a little light that will at least get us off our phones. Now, we hope it will stop altogether.”

This 60-day truce and on the condition that Hezbollah or any other armed faction refrains from carrying out any offensive against Israel also makes Salam, an engineer, react: “We simply don’t trust the State of Israel. No, for me, it remains an enemy. So, unfortunately, my hope for peace in the region is very minimal. We know very well, we have it experienced only with Israel, it is very complicated because Israel does not agree to treat others as equals and we do not accept to be under treated.

His brother Tony intervenes: “Any forces that resist against the occupier of a country are resistance. Everyone has seen the war crimes they have committed everywhere in Palestine, in Gaza.”

He believes that the ceasefire in Lebanon must lead to another: an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The only condition for lasting global peace, according to him.