As Thousands Try to Return Home, Fragile Mideast Cease-Fires Are Tested

The fragile cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza were tested on Sunday as Israeli forces killed or injured scores of people in southern Lebanon, Lebanese officials said, while in Gaza, Israel prevented Palestinians from moving back to their homes, saying Hamas had violated the terms of the truce.

But by the end of the day in Gaza, Israel and Hamas said understandings had been reached via mediators to resolve their dispute.

And the White House issued a statement indicating that in Lebanon, an arrangement for an initial 60-day truce that had called for the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the southern part of the country by Sunday would be extended until Feb. 18.

Negotiators had hoped that the cease-fire in Lebanon, which was signed in November, would become permanent by now, securing a measure of calm in a turbulent region. Thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war have poured onto roads leading south, heading back to their homes.

But as the original deadline passed on Sunday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the forces of the militant group Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, a very different scenario was taking shape. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli forces killed at least 22 people and injured 120 in southern Lebanon, making Sunday the deadliest day in the country since the war ended in November.

The Israeli military said in a statement late on Sunday that it had fired “warning shots in order to eliminate threats” — a formulation that suggested the shots may have been more than just warnings. It said that there had been “dozens of rioters” in the area. The military also said its soldiers had spotted a “a vehicle with Hezbollah flags” and that its forces had “operated in order to remove the threat.”