The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah brought hope for normality back to many in southern Lebanon, including fishermen who have long launched their single-engine wooden boats into the Mediterranean at dawn.

During the last two months of its year fighting Hezbollah, Israel imposed a siege on southern Lebanon that kept hundreds of fishers at this ancient Phoenician port on shore, upending their lives and the industry.

Dean Sweetland casts his gaze over a forlorn street in the Israeli community of Kibbutz Malkiya. Perched on a hill overlooking the border with Lebanon, the town stands mostly empty after being abandoned a year ago.

The daycare is closed. The homes are unkempt. Parts of the landscape are ashen from fires sparked by fallen Hezbollah rockets. Even after a tenuous Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire designed to let Israelis return to the north, the mood there is far from celebratory.

Hezbollah held a public funeral in a southern village on Friday for five of its fighters killed during the fighting with Israel. It was the first time the Lebanese militant group held a public funeral since after the war intensified in late September.

“My son is in heaven,” said Zeinab al-Haj holding a bag of roses to toss them on the coffin of her son Ali Hijazi during the ceremony in the village of Maarakeh. Hijazi died of wounds suffered in an airstrike last week.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Friday declared a "great victory" against Israel in his first speech since a ceasefire went into effect in Lebanon.

"I have decided to declare... officially and clearly that we are facing a great victory that surpasses that of July 2006," Qassem said, adding: "We won because we prevented the enemy from destroying Hezbollah... (and) from annihilating or weakening the resistance."

The Israeli army said Friday it had struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon after detecting militant activity in the area two days after the start of a ceasefire.

"A short while ago, terrorist activity and movement of a Hezbollah portable rocket launcher were identified in southern Lebanon. The threat was thwarted in an (Israeli Air Force) strike", the army said in a statement that featured a video of the air strike on a slowly moving truck.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati communicated with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein on Thursday to “discuss the developments and emphasize Lebanon’s stance,” in the wake of Israel’s numerous violations of the ceasefire agreement, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

Some in Israel’s security establishment are estimating the chances of a resumption of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon at 50%, according to Israel’s Ynet news portal.

Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil has said that Israel has failed to achieve victory in its war on Lebanon, although the country “lost a lot of leaders, icons, martyrs and infrastructure.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for an “immediate” halt to “all actions that violate” the ceasefire that has been in effect in Lebanon since Wednesday, the Elysee Palace said on Friday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday accused Hezbolah of committing “a major crime against the Lebanese in general and the residents of the Bekaa, the south and Beirut’s southern suburbs in particular.”