Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, tonight claimed a "strategic and historic victory" over Israel as the first day of a ceasefire in the Middle East crisis brought a seemingly fragile calm following a month of fighting. A Globes-Smith survey published on Monday showed that the majority of Israelis, 58%, believe that Israel achieved only a small part of its objectives, if any at all.
The survey showed that only 3 percent of Israelis believe that the country achieved most or all of its pre-war objectives.
In his address on Arab television tonight, Sheikh Nasrallah gave the strong impression that he had no intention of ordering his troops to withdraw and declared that the Lebanese army and international troops were "incapable of protecting Lebanon".
He promised that Hezbollah would help the Lebanese people rebuild, and estimated some 15,000 housing units had been completely destroyed.
He made his comments as thousands of refugees were returning to their homes in southern Lebanon.
The guns fell silent after a major Israeli push in the closing hours before the ceasefire deadline at 8am local time (0600 BST).
However, the truce’s fragile nature was underlined when the Israeli military reported shooting a man they described as a Hizbullah guerrilla in the town of Hadatha, around a mile north of the Israeli border, today.
They said the man had been part of a group approaching an Israeli outpost "in a threatening way", and was only a few metres away when troops opened fire.
"The unit was under threat, so they fired in self-defence," an army statement said. "But the armed men didn’t open fire first."
*this article was sourced from local sources, ynetnews and the Guardian newspaper
