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washington. 'n this is bbc world news america. thousands are returned to their homes after a cease-fire takes effect in lebanon but many have little to return to. donald's team says send -- said some of his cabinet picks have been targeted by bomb threats in sweating attempts. three americans are released from china in prisoner swap following years of high-level diplomacy. ♪ welcome to world news america. thousands of lebanese civilians returning to their homes after a cease-fire between israel and hezbollah went into effect ending some 13 months of fighting. so far it does appear to be holding. ebony's authorities are focusing on recovering and reconstruction efforts in areas pummeled by israeli strikes for months. united states in france as well as u.n. peacekeepers will

monitor the of a mentation of the deal. israel says the withdrawal of its forces from southern lebanon will be gradual. lebanon will end its armed presence. i the first's statement is the truth -- the truth went to a fight, the lebanese army confirmed its truth -- it's troops are weaving south of the otani river. our middle east correspondent has in traveling from beirut to tyre with many lebanese making their way home. >> early in the morning, they grabbed what they could and headed south to force to flee because of the war. they did not wait to see if the cease-fire would hold. they were already driving back home. for many here, it was a moment of celebration. this is the main road between beirut and the south of the country. for hours, thousands of people have been trying to go back to

their homes. they say they have not been defeated in this war and that this is a sign of victory. >> what's happened is very good should this is a victory for the resistance. the resistance is our honor and pride. without its existence, there would be no homeland, no south, nothing. >> it does not matter if the house is still standing or not. the important thing is we are returning thanks to the blood of our martyr. >> five hours later, we arrived in tyre, a journey that usually only takes one hour. this is the city center of tyre, the largest city in the south of the country. i remember being here before this conflict. it was a vibrant place. now there is widespread destruction and it is completely empty.

this family was visiting their flat for the first time. an israeli airstrike destroyed a building nearby. the attack was so powerful it damaged almost everything here. >> i am so sad because my building is so damaged. i don't like this. >> recovery for this country will be long and difficult. for lebanon, it means this crisis is not over. bbc news, southern lebanon. >> hugo joins us now from southern lebanon. we saw in your piece many people returning home. how is that process going? give us a sense of the situation on the ground. >> so day one is over here and

the cease-fire is holding. we have seen there has been a deployment of additional lebanese soldiers to the south of the country. this is part of the process. 5000 lebanese soldiers are going to be deployed. israeli troops will pull out from areas of the south and hezbollah will remove its fighters and weapons from those areas. implementation is a key here and everyone is waiting to see if this deal is going to be fully implemented. the hope is this sixty-day cease-fire will pave the way for a permanent cease-fire and an end to the war between israel and hezbollah. a war that has been devastating for this country. more than one billion people have been displaced because of the violence across lebanon. the human cost of the war as well with more than 3500 people killed across lebanon. 15,000 injured.

the hope here is we could see the end of these hostilities between israel and hezbollah. >> in terms of people returning, what does the recovery and rebuilding effort look like across the country? >> this is one of the key questions here because even before this war, lebanon was struggling after years of economic crisis. the world bank says there have been damages at around $8.5 billion across the country after weeks of airstrikes. also economic losses as a result of the violence that has been happening for more than a year. this is one of the key questions going forward. who is going to help lebanon. who is going to pay to rebuild all the damage and the destruction across the country. there is an interesting question here and that is about the future of hezbollah.

this is a militia here in the country but also a political party with representation in parliament. a social organization with significant report especially among she a muslims in lebanon. the group has been weekend by this campaign. by the is really military but it has not been destroyed. a lot of people fear that this could be the end of the war with israel but internally, we could see even more violence. >> thank you. many countries have responded positively to the truce. a separate deal between israel and hamas does remain out of reach for now. in a statement, a hamas official says we have informed mediators hamas is ready for a cease-fire agreement and a serious deal to exchange prisoners. negotiations between israel and hamas have been at a standstill since the killing of hamas

leaders. earlier this month, qatar withdrew from its role as a mediator after months of field efforts to bridge the gap between the two sides. that comes as the israeli government is facing criticism it has not done enough to secure the release of the remaining 97 israeli hostages believed to be in gaza. families of hostages demanded their return during protests in tel aviv soon after the cease-fire with hezbollah was announced. one of the hostages who is a father, a husband and a son and his father joins us now. i want to first of all get your thoughts on this deal we are seeing in lebanon. do you see this as a potential step towards a deal that might ring your son and the other hostages home from gaza? >> one can always have hope. i don't see a direct connection unfortunately. i think like most israelis, i am

happy at least the fighting and suffering in the north and for the people of lebanon and for israeli civilian seems to be over for now. time will tell and history will tell whether or not this blood letting in the north was worth it for anyone. unfortunately and given the leadership in israel and hamas, it is difficult to say whether there will be any spillover effect in two getting any kind of agreement done between israel and hamas. >> when president biden announced the cease-fire deal at the white house, he made sure to bring up hostages, especially american citizens believed to be held. what did you make of that and the job the administration has done? constantly do here the president mentioned those hostages are still on his mind.

>> the biden administration has been 100 percent committed since october 2023 to and all the hostages. the remaining seven citizens. they have gone to extraordinary measures to get israel and hamas to sign the agreement. at the end of the day, president biden is not signing anything. the two parties, sinwar until he was killed and cry minister netanyahu, they are the ones that need to sign. president biden himself would say if i can speak for him he would have done enough or he will have done enough in his administration and the hostages are home. -- when the hostages are home should we are hoping now as his it is winning and the new trump is coming on line there can be a

combined effort to get this done and to create a truly american moment getting the seven u.s. hostages home. all the hostages echoing the release of the u.s. hostages that were held in tehran around the time of president reagan's first inauguration. >> on that point, do you think the next trump administration might bring a change to the situation? might potentially improve the odds of making a deal? >> we are counting on it. we dearly hope president biden will be able to accomplish freeing of the hostages in his last weeks and months. but clearly something has to change. the formulas that were tried have not succeeded to get the hostages home to create an agreement and president trump we

want to believe has the kind of force necessary personal and otherwise to get all the parties to yes. primarily hamas which as we all know has steadfastly refused lipservice aside, steadfastly fused to agree to any kind of agreement and perpetuating the suffering of its own people. the israeli government has to be brought into line. best possible way to that goal would be for both administrations, the biden and trump administrations to stand side-by-side and make that happen between now and january 20. > briefly before i let you go, it is so difficult to imagine how this must be for you and your family. thanksgiving coming up on thursday in the u.s., how is your family coping for the second time during the holiday

without your son at the table? >> we -- we struggle but we must retain hope. never thought we would get here. it did not need to come to this for sure but here we are. i don't know what the future holds and i don't know how many more thanksgiving or holiday or life events we will have to mark without our son and the other hundred hostages. i do know all of the families and almost all of israeli society will not rest until all of the hostages are home. those who may still be alive and those who have already been murdered by hamas. >> our thoughts are certainly with you as well. the father of a hostage captured by hamas on october 7 and believed to still be held captive in gaza.

we thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> more on the cease-fire ongoing between israel and hezbollah. one of israel's main roles is to allow civilians to return to homes in regions bordering lebanon. our correspondent has been speaking some of those who left to escape hezbollah rocket fire pit >> in the lebanon's -- the lebanese village, the sound of the cease-fire being tested. one of several places where israel's army said it spotted suspects approaching and fired to push them back. >> the cease-fire drew people back to the israeli side of the border too like kibbutz residents. >> this is unbelievable.

like a nightmare. >> it is your first time back after a year. >> we left on the eighth of october 23. >> you have heard the small arms fire outside should do you trust the cease-fire? >> not so much. >> three quarters of the buildings here have an damaged during the war. antitank missiles punched straight through their walls. the entrance point is over there. in the dining room, she shows me the whole left by a rocket. she has lived through two previous wars here but says this cease-fire is different. >> it will not be the same. our forces will not, will not leave these villages and will not allow terrorists to come back here. you can hear it yourself. never someone will try to come

back, they will be shot. >> the cease-fire is triggering the first discussions of what it would take for residents to return. this family home was burnt out after a missile came through the living room wall. with the cease-fire in place, people are coming back to see what has happened to their border communities. damage like this is not just a practical challenge. it is also a reminder of what hezbollah weapons can do. rebuilding this will take months but rebuilding a sense of security could take much longer. through the living room window, the shattered houses of their lebanese neighbors as close as ever. but the distance between them has changed. lucy williamson, bbc news, may nara. >> u.s. special envoy to lebanon

hochstein helped secure the truce and he told me what it took to get the deal done. thank you for joining us. take is inside these negotiations. u.s. is working on a cease-fire deal for some time now. what was the breakthrough moment? why now? >> over the last many months, changes on the ground have occurred. as hezbollah was degraded and capabilities degraded and leadership removed through the battlefield, at some point there comes a time when you have to translate battlefield gains into political gains into an actual deal. that is what guarantees the security. several weeks ago, five or six weeks ago, president biden and i discussed this is the right moment to put the pressure to see if parties can reach an agreement. both parties understood this was the right moment. it was the last moment.

it was either now or we would have to wait for several more months. >> why is that? >> at some point you get to a transition and you have a new administration coming in. it will take time to learn the file and in so it is either going to be now or it was going to be in february or march or something like that. darker you were intimately involved in these negotiations. what makes you confident this cease-fire deal will be durable? >> i don't know if i would say i am confident. i am very hopeful. we try to learn from the lessons, when the right lessons from the failure of the previous deal that was done in 2006 where no implementation mechanisms were created beyond the u.n. which does not work for this case. and the international community kind of left of the scene at -- as soon the agreement was reached. we were determined to change

that and to have a mechanism established where we can make sure we are watching everything that is happening on the ground. that is the big difference between last time and this time. it is about getting the lebanese military to deploy. other lebanese security services to deploy and an authorization by the government which just passed the government earlier today as part of the agreement authorizing the lebanese army to do it. there is another element different from 06. the end of the battle in 06, hezbollah was at peak strength. it is not there now. this is a moment where lebanon has an opportunity and a chance to redefine itself, reestablish itself and the first thing it starts with asserting sovereignty over his country. >> you mentioned the trump administration. they will be under the white

house come january. to what extent have you been correlating with the next administration dr. they were not involved in the negotiations but after the -- i did have conversations. to make sure they knew what the deal was. and also i think it is only fair if we are making commitments after an election, the incoming administration should know what those are and express their support which they have. >> you think this is a deal they will support. >> i don't see any reason why not. this is in israel's best interest and lebanon's best interest and the united states national security best interest. >> much of the attention will be turning to gaza and the conflict there. to what extent do you think the deal could help pave the way for a truce in gaza with hamas? >> i think it very well can be. i think there is a moment here

in time we have changed something. the dynamic has changed. the linkage between lebanon and gaza has been broken. hamas has to wake up this morning at 4:00 a.m. when the cease-fire went into effect and understand they are alone. the rest of the region is abandoning them. it is time as president biden said yesterday from the rose garden, they have not come to the negotiating table in good faith for several months. if they are willing to release the hostages which will help bring about an end to the conflict, that is within our grasp. we are going to do everything we can with this administration led by president biden to bring the hostages home and bring the conflict to a close. i think the cease-fire with lebanon can be a spark or a key to unlocking that. >> another update from washington, donald trump has chosen retired lieutenant general keith kellogg as u.s. special envoy for the russia ukraine war. he has advised trump on foreign

policy for eight years. this year he presented trump with a peace plan for the russia ukraine war. i would force moscow and kyiv to enter peace talks with refusal to negotiate having consequences for either side. several of donald trump's cabinet nominees have received bomb threats in what appears to be a hoax. the fbi says it is aware of numerous bomb threats and sweating incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees. it is working with law enforcement partners. mr. trump himself was not a target according to u.s. media reports. >> given the number of names that are emerging, this appears to have been quite widespread. among them, least a phonic, donald trump's picked to be the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. howard let, his choice for commerce secretary and lee zeldin, the men donald trump's take to head up the environmental protection agency. mr. zeldin has said a pipe bomb

threat was sent to his home with a pro-palestinian themed message. there were several other names emerging. we don't know a final tally. what the fbi is saying is numerous officials were targeted with bomb threats or swatting incidents. swatting. is where a hoax kohler calls up law enforcement alleges a violent incident of some kind in order to try to get a everly armed team or swat team to a target address. u.s. lawmakers, public officials have been targeted in this way before. it can be incredibly dangerous. we know president biden has been briefed according to a white house spokesperson. mr. biden condemned threats of political violence and donald trump's team says dangerous acts of intimidation will not deter them. >> three americans detained in

china were released in prisoner swap. mark's white and was behind bars since 2012, the longest of the three. he is a businessman from texas. he was facing the death penalty for narcotics conviction. the new york times reports the u.s. released a chinese national facing 20 years after being convicted of espionage. the prisoner swap was the result of years of diplomacy. most recently president biden raise the issue of americans detained in china directly with president xi jinping at the apex summit. search teams are still looking for seven people missing in the red sea where tourist boats capsized on monday night. 31 kapsch -- 31 passengers and 31 crew were on the boat when it left an ejection resort. some of the people found rescued were trapped in boat cabinets -- boat cabins 40 feet underwater. one of the survivors has spoken about their survivor -- about

their rescue. >> i appreciate it. a warm shower, a dinner after. we were shaking with cold. they warmed us up. >> quite the rescue. you can find all the days news on our website. that is bbc.com/news and you can check out what we are working on anytime. you can go to your favorite social media site for that. here in washington, thank you for watching world news america. more coming up at the top of the hour. ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james.

announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

♪ >> good evening. tonight, people begin returning to southern lebanon, a