Beside the graves of Hezbollah fighters in eastern Lebanon's Baalbek region, families with tears in their eyes paid respects to the dead and celebratory gunshots could be heard in the background Wednesday, the first day of a ceasefire between the militant group and Israel.

“The resistance (Hezbollah) will stay to defend Lebanon,” Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Mokdad told reporters while visiting the graves. “We tell the enemy that the martyrs thwarted their plans for the Middle East.”

The Israeli army announced restrictions Wednesday on people's movements in south Lebanon after dark, hours after a ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect.

Residents will be barred from travelling south of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers from the border, between 1500 GMT and 0500 GMT Thursday, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X. They will also be barred from returning to villages the army has ordered evacuated, he added.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil congratulated the Lebanese for a ceasefire that came into effect on Wednesday morning.

If it holds, the ceasefire would bring an end to nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated in mid-September into all-out war.

Pictures of Hezbollah Coordination and Liaison Unit chief Wafiq Safa surfaced Wednesday on social media shortly after the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire went into effect.

World leaders have welcomed a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah, which came into force on Wednesday morning.

Here are key reactions from around the world.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said Wednesday his group was cooperating over the army’s deployment in south Lebanon, denying fighters had visible bases there and saying nobody could force residents to leave their villages.

There is "full cooperation" with the Lebanese state over strengthening the army’s deployment in south Lebanon, Fadlallah told AFP, adding that the group has "no visible weapons or bases" there and that "nobody can make residents leave their villages".

The deputy leader of Hezbollah’s political council Mahmud Qomati said Wednesday the group was preparing an official public funeral for former chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, killed two months ago in an Israeli strike.

Hezbollah postponed the service "in order to organize a funeral. We are preparing for this funeral worthy" of Nasrallah, Qomati told a press conference in Beirut’s southern suburbs, adding that the service would be "public and official".

An Israeli security official says Israeli forces remain in their positions hours after a ceasefire took place and will only gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon.

The official, speaking Wednesday on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules, would not say when troops would begin the withdrawal but said it would be completed during the 60-day period laid out in the ceasefire agreement.

France’s foreign minister underlined his country’s role in brokering an agreement that ended fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah alongside the U.S., saying the deal wouldn’t have been possible without France’s special relationship with its former protectorate.

“It’s a success for French diplomacy and we can be proud,” said the minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking hours after the ceasefire went into effect Wednesday.

The Lebanese army asked displaced people returning to southern Lebanon to avoid frontline villages and towns near the border where the Israeli military is still present until the troops withdraw, as a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to take hold.

"With the ceasefire coming into effect, the army is taking the necessary measures to complete its deployment in the south," the army said in a statement. "The army command calls on citizens to wait before returning to frontline villages and towns that Israeli enemy forces have penetrated, awaiting their withdrawal."