An Israeli official said on Sunday that the return of normal civilian life in northern Israel along the border with Lebanon is the way “to truly defeat Hezbollah.” 

“In order to truly defeat Hezbollah—because militarily, we have already won, and our victory is very clear—to truly win, to achieve long-term victory, is to have many residents living here (northern Israel), vast tourism, to reopen the restaurants and cafes that used to be here, to have people coming to cycle, agriculture flourishing—everything thriving,” Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, said while visiting southern Lebanon. 

“This is a long-term victory. And the state must step in and strongly reinforce this responsibility,” he added. 

Fox News confirmed that Halevi had conducted a situational assessment on Sunday in southern Lebanon with the Commanding Officer of the Northern Command, MG Ori Gordin; the Commanding Officer of the 146th Division, BG Yiftach Norkin; the Commanding Officer of the 300th Brigade, COL Omri Rosenkrantz; and other senior officers. 

IDF FINDS HEZBOLLAH WEAPONS CACHE IN UNDERGROUND TUNNEL: VIDEO

A cease-fire deal between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon has held for a month as of Friday.

Since the 60-day agreement went into effect on Nov. 27, Israeli forces have been conducting operations in southern Lebanon that they say are meant to dismantle terror tunnels and Hezbollah’s command center.

According to the New York Times, Israeli forces have continued strikes as the cease-fire deal has held, mostly in southern Lebanon but now, as of days ago, also in the eastern Bekaa region. 

Halevi conducted a situational assessment on Dec. 29, 2024, in southern Lebanon. (IDF)

IDF SOLDIERS ACCUSE UN PEACEKEEPERS OF ENABLING HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS AMID INCREASING CEASE-FIRE VIOLATIONS

Israeli officials say Hezbollah is trying to test Israel by smuggling weapons across the Lebanese-Syrian border crossings. 

Thousands of Israelis have evacuated villages along the Lebanon border after Hezbollah, in allegiance with Hamas terrorists in Gaza, began launching rockets at Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. 

The IDF Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, conducted a situational assessment on Dec. 29, 2024, in southern Lebanon.  (IDF)

Israeli forces in response have pummeled Lebanon, severely weakening Hezbollah, forcing the group to make concessions. 

The Times reports that hundreds of thousands of people displaced inside Lebanon have begun to return home since the cease-fire agreement took effect. 

A significant number of countries brought back incumbent leaders, of whom some, like South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and India’s Modi, came back to power with reduced numbers and coalitions rather than the larger majorities that they had previously.

Incumbents:

Algeria: Algerian leader, Abdelmadjid Tebboune was re-elected as president with a 94.7 percent vote in September.

Azerbaijan: President Ilham Aliyev secured a fifth term in office in February after a heavy crackdown on media and in the absence of any real opposition.

Belarus: President Aleksandr Lukashenko retained power in the legislature in parliamentary elections in February. A staunch ally of Russia, Lukashenko has been accused of manipulating previous elections and stamping out political opposition. The presidential vote will be held in January 2025.

Bulgaria: The centre-right party GERB took the lead, but didn’t manage to win the majority vote, in the country’s seventh snap elections in four years in October.

Chad: Mahamat Idriss Deby was confirmed as the winner of the May presidential election after dismissing challenges by two losing candidates – extending his family’s decades-long rule. The country held parliamentary elections on Sunday, December 29. Results have not yet been declared.

Comoros: President Azali Assoumani won a fourth five-year term in the island nation. He was declared the winner against five opponents, with 62.97 percent of the vote. Protests rocked the country, and a curfew was imposed by the army after the results were announced.

Croatia: Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) formed a coalition to continue ruling after the April vote.

Dominican Republic: Luis Abinader won a second term in May, with 58.5 percent of the vote, after a tough stance on migration from neighbouring Haiti secured support for him.

Georgia: The ruling Georgian Dream party of billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili won more than 54 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections. The results are seen as a blow to pro-Western Georgians, who had cast the election as a choice between a governing party that has deepened ties with Russia, and an opposition that had hoped to fast-track integration with the European Union.

India: Narendra Modi’s BJP won a third term, but not with a majority – unlike previous terms. Modi was forced to form a coalition to govern, against an opposition led by Rahul Gandhi that gained seats and visibility across the country.

Lithuania: Gintautas Paluckas assumed office as prime minister in December, as the Social Democrats formed a government a coalition with the Nemunas Dawn and For Lithuania parties with control of 86 seats in the 141-member parliament.

Pakistan: In February, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif returned to power after controversial elections that saw his family-led political party, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) fail to secure the numbers on its own. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party was disqualified before the vote, but its candidates contested as independents, winning more seats than any other party. Sharif formed a government in coalition with the Pakistan People’s Party. The PTI alleges electoral malpractice in the vote, which the government denies.

Russia: Vladimir Putin won his fifth presidential election with 87 percent of the vote, the highest-ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history.

Rwanda: Paul Kagame won his fourth term in office with 99 percent of the vote. His critics accuse him of a crackdown on opponents. His supporters claim his critics are little more than Western puppets unwilling to accept his popularity.

South Africa: Cyril Ramaphosa from the African National Congress was re-elected as South Africa’s president for a second term. After having lost a majority in the parliament for the first time since 1994, the governing African National Congress formed an unwieldy coalition with political rivals to stay in power.

Taiwan: In January, Lai Ching-te – also known as William Lai – from the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won Taiwan’s presidential election, despite warnings from China not to vote for him. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and views Lai, a staunch critic of Beijing, as a separatist. Lai was Taiwan’s vice president under the outgoing president, Tsai Ing-wen.

Togo: Togo’s ruling UNIR party, led by President Faure Gnassingbe, won 108 out of 113 seats in parliament. The sweeping majority follows the approval of controversial constitutional reforms by the outgoing parliament that could extend the Gnassingbe family’s 57-year rule.

Tunisia: In October, President Kais Saied won a second term in the presidential election. Several other presidential contenders were imprisoned. In 2021, Saied dissolved the elected parliament and rewrote the constitution in a move that the opposition called a coup.

Venezuela: In July, Nicholas Maduro won re-election with 51 percent of the vote – his third win since he first took over as president in 2013 after the death of his mentor and former President Hugo Chavez. The United Socialist Party has been in power for 25 years. Protests erupted, demanding the release of election results by individual polling stations as the opposition said the results of the July 28 election were rigged. Maduro’s government has cracked down on opposition protesters and leaders, forcing many to take refuge in foreign embassies.

New leaders:

Austria: In September, Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) emerged victorious after the country’s parliamentary election. While the FPO won the most votes, it did not win with a large enough margin to govern alone. The coalition talks will continue into the new year as the three centrist parties are under pressure to reach a deal, with none of the parties wanting to join hands with the FPO.

Botswana: In November, Duma Boko was declared the election winner over incumbent President Mokgweetsi Masisi in a seismic change that ended the ruling party’s 58 years in power since independence from Britain in 1960.

Bhutan: Tshering Tobgay returned as prime minister, with his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) winning the most seats in Bhutan’s parliamentary election in January and defeating the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT).

Iceland: In December, Iceland’s centre-left Social Democratic Alliance won the most votes in snap elections prompted by the collapse of the coalition in power for the past seven years. Kristrun Frostadottir assumed her role as prime minister on December 21. Earlier, in June, Halla Tómasdóttir was elected president of Iceland, defeating incumbent Gudni Johannesson with 55 percent of the vote.

Indonesia: The former general, Prabowo Subianto, became president of the third-most populous country in the world, with running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the son of former President Joko Widodo.

Iran: Masoud Pezeshkian won the presidential elections in July. A reformist, Pezeshkian assumed the role of president amid the ongoing war waged by Israel on Palestine and its fallout on the broader Middle East, and after the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi.

Mexico: Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, became Mexico’s first female president after a landslide victory in June, taking over from her Morena party’s leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Portugal: In March, a centre-right alliance led by the Social Democratic Party won Portugal’s general election by a slender margin and formed a minority government. The hard-right Chega party made major gains and demanded a place in the cabinet, but the centre-right alliance formed a cabinet without them.

Senegal: In March, opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye won 54 percent of votes in the presidential election. His victory came just 10 days after he was freed from prison.

Sri Lanka: In November, Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s leftist coalition achieved a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections, delivering the self-described Marxist leader a powerful mandate to fight poverty and corruption in the crisis-stricken nation.

Tuvalu: The former attorney general, Feleti Teo, was named new prime minister after a general election that removed the island’s pro-Taiwan leader. Teo’s elevation to prime minister came after his pro-Taiwan predecessor, Kausea Natano, lost his seat in the January 26 election.

United Kingdom: In the lowest voter turnout in 20 years, UK voters ended 14 years of Conservative Party rule in a snap election that brought Keir Starmer and the Labour Party back into Downing Street.

Amidst an economic and healthcare crisis, there was a surge in support for the populist right-wing Reform UK party.

United States: Donald Trump emerged victorious in November after defeating Kamala Harris in the Electoral College by a comfortable margin, as many states that previously voted for Democrats fell to the Republicans.

Removed leaders:

Bangladesh: Sheikh Hasina was re-elected in January 2024 for her fifth term as the prime minister. In June, protests erupted against a quota policy that quickly expanded into a movement against her increasingly authoritarian rule. After days of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces, Hasina resigned and fled to India in early August. At least 280 people were killed and thousands were injured.

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed as the head of an interim government until elections are held.

Syria: Bashar al-Assad held parliamentary elections in July, in which all 250 seats went to his Baathist party. But five months later, he was out of power. Opposition forces took Damascus in the early hours of December 8 after a lightning assault, ending the al-Assad family’s 50-year reign in a surprise offensive.

A 13-year civil war in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed, thousands disappeared and six million fled the country finally came to an end.

The offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, has installed an interim administration that will establish the new constitution and a new government.