AP PHOTOS: A look at more than a year of fighting as Israel and Hezbollah begin ceasefire

Smoke rising from the rubble of multistory buildings in Beirut. Rockets streaking over the blackened hills of northern Israel. People fleeing their homes, not knowing when or if they will return.

Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began a ceasefire Wednesday, but even if it holds, the devastation caused by 14 months of fighting will linger for years. Associated Press photographers have documented the harsh toll on both sides.

The border area is a charred wasteland, and an escalation in September brought waves of bombardment upon the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs and other areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence. Strikes also hit other areas.

Hezbollah's rocket, drone and missile fire emptied out communities across northern Israel, and longer-range drones and missiles have hit the northern city of Haifa and the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Israel agreed to the ceasefire after months of negotiations led by the United States and France. Hezbollah has said it accepts the proposal. It took effect early Wednesday with a two-month initial halt in fighting. The deal requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops return to their side of the border.

Civilians on both sides will continue to pay the price — in the coming hours, months and years. In Lebanon, Israeli forces have blown up entire villages. In Israel, people returning to their homes in the north for the first time in more than a year may find that they have been heavily damaged. Others may never come back, fearing future attacks.

Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel the day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. Hezbollah said it was acting in solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group. Israel returned fire, and the two sides have been exchanging barrages ever since.

Israel escalated its campaign in mid-September, launching airstrikes that killed top Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his deputies. It is widely thought to have been behind an attack earlier that month in which pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members exploded, killing several people, including civilians, and wounding thousands.

Israeli ground troops invaded at the start of October and have been battling Hezbollah in a belt of towns and villages near the border.

More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, with many forced to camp out in public parks and beaches. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members.

Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country’s north. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

An Israeli flag stands next to destroyed buildings on an area in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Rescue workers and people search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, early Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A man looks from a damaged building a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Ramat Gan, central Israel, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A bomb dropped from an Israeli jet prepares to hit a building in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Ivana Skakye, 2, a Lebanese child who is suffering from third-degree burns over 40 percent of her body following an Israeli airstrike last September near their home in Deir Qanoun al Nahr, a village in south Lebanon, raises her burned arms as she lies on a bed at the Geitaoui hospital where she is receiving treatment, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People take cover as a siren warns of incoming rockets during the funeral of Alexei Popov, who was killed during a rocket attack fired from Lebanon last weekend, at the Tel Regev cemetery in the outskirts of Haifa, northern Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Mourners carry a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the funeral procession of their relatives, in Maisara near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

A resident of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike returns to collect his family's belongings at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Tents set up as temporary shelters by displaced families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south and Dahiyeh, are seen along the Ramlet al-Baida public beach in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Syrians carry their luggage as they cross on foot into Syria through a crater caused by an Israeli airstrike to cut the road between the Lebanese and the Syrian checkpoints, at the Masnaa crossing, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Samer Husseini, File)

Volunteers of the Russian Cultural Center entertain displaced children at a school in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

People take cover on the side of the road as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Iran on a freeway in Shoresh, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in Israel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024.(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

An Israeli tank maneuvers in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Israeli shelling hit an area in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Families sleep on Beirut's corniche after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

People take cover next to a public bomb shelter as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Safed, northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A woman reads the Quran at the site of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut's southern suburbs, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Lebanese and Palestinian men hold portraits of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as they shout slogans during a protest in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Coloring pencils and books are scattered on the ground outside a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

People take cover in a bomb shelter as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Safed, northern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Boys salute during the funeral procession of Hezbollah members who were killed when a handheld device exploded, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept an attack from Lebanon over the Galilee region as seen from the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, on Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Residents rush to help injured children moments after a rocket attack hit a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, Saturday, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Shams)

Sivan, mother of Israeli soldier, Sergeant Dolev Malca, was killed during Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip, screams as she salutes her son during his funeral in Shlomi, northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon, Sunday, March 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A protester burns an American flag as others shout slogans against Israel and the United States during a protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, March 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A cat searches for food in a house burnt by rockets fired by Hezbollah in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Manal Jaafar, centre. reacts as she hugs a photo of her husband Rabih Maamari, a cameraman at pan-Arab TV network Al-Mayadeen who was killed by an Israeli strike, during his funeral procession in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A young girl looks through a bus window as her family departs the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, Israel, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023 after the Israeli military announced it would evacuate the border city a day after three residents were injured by cross-border fire from militants in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

A journalist's car burns after an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes in the Alma al-Shaab border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart's sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups.

The changes announced by the world's biggest retailer on Monday followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees.

The retreat from such programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Trump's incoming deputy chief of policy will be his former adviser Stephen Miller, who leads a group called America First Legal that has aggressively challenged corporate DEI policies.

“There has been a lot of reassessment of risk looking at programs that could be deemed to constitute reverse discrimination,” said Allan Schweyer, principal researcher at the Human Capital Center at the Conference Board.

“This is another domino to fall and it is a rather large domino,” he added.

Among other changes, Walmart said it will no longer give priority treatment to suppliers owned by women or minorities. The company also will not renew a five-year commitment for a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. And it pulled out of a prominent gay rights index.

Schweyer said the biggest trigger for companies making such changes is simply a reassessment of their legal risk exposure, which began after U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2023 that ended affirmative action in college admissions. Since then, conservative groups using similar arguments have secured court victories against various diversity programs, especially those that steer contracts to minority or women-owned businesses.

Most recently, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty won a victory in a case against the U.S. Department of Transportation over its use of a program that gives priority to minority-owned businesses when it awards contracts.

Companies are seeing a big legal risk in continuing with DEI efforts, said Dan Lennington, a deputy counsel at the institute. His organization says it has identified more than 60 programs in the federal government that it considers discriminatory, he said.

“We have a legal landscape within the entire federal government, all three branches -- the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress and the President -- are all now firmly pointed in the direction towards equality of individuals and individualized treatment of all Americans, instead of diversity, equity and inclusion treating people as members of racial groups,” Lennington said.

The Trump administration is also likely to take direct aim at DEI initiatives through executive orders and other policies that affect private companies, especially federal contractors.

“The impact of the election on DEI policies is huge. It can’t be overstated,” said Jason Schwartz, co-chair of the Labor & Employment Practice Group at law firm Gibson Dunn.

With Miller returning to the White House, rolling back DEI initiatives is likely to be a priority, Schwartz said.

“Companies are trying to strike the right balance to make clear they’ve got an inclusive workplace where everyone is welcome, and they want to get the best talent, while at the same time trying not to alienate various parts of their employees and customer base who might feel one way or the other. It’s a virtually impossible dilemma,” Schwartz said.

Marc Morial, CEO of the National Urban League, a civil rights group that has worked with Walmart on diversity and inclusion efforts in the past, called the company's pullback from DEI “stunning" and “unexpected.”

“This is inconsistent with the Walmart I know,” said Morial, who argued that DEI policies are how organizations ensure compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and any suggestion of favoritism or preferential treatment “is really defamatory against what DEI represents.”

He said that Walmart would see “a strong message” to the decision but that civil rights leaders “are first very interested in dialogue” with Walmart executives.

A recent survey by Pew Research Center showed that workers are divided on the merits of DEI policies. While still broadly popular, the share of workers who said focusing on workplace diversity was mostly a good thing fell to 52% in the October survey, compared to 56% in a similar survey in February 2023. Rachel Minkin, a research associate at Pew, called it a small but significant shift in short amount of time.

There will be more companies pulling back from their DEI policies, but it likely won’t be a retreat across the board, said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University.

“There are vastly more companies that are sticking with DEI," Glasgow said. "The only reason you don’t hear about it is most of them are doing it by stealth. They’re putting their heads down and doing DEI work and hoping not to attract attention.”

Glasgow advises organizations to stick to their own core values, because attitudes toward the topic can change quickly in the span of four years.

“It’s going to leave them looking a little bit weak if there’s a kind of flip-flopping, depending on whichever direction the political winds are blowing,” he said.

One reason DEI programs exist is because without those programs, companies may be vulnerable to lawsuits for traditional discrimination. “Really think carefully about the risks in all directions on this topic,” Glasgow said.

Walmart confirmed will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts. Walmart says its U.S. businesses sourced more than $13 billion in goods and services from diverse suppliers in fiscal year 2024, including businesses owned by minorities, women and veterans.

It was unclear how its relationships with such business would change going forward. Organizations that have partnered with Walmart on its diversity initiatives offered a cautious response.

The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, a non-profit that last year named Walmart one of America's top corporation for women-owned enterprises, said it was still evaluating the impact of Walmart's announcement.

Pamela Prince-Eason, the president and CEO of the organization, said she hoped Walmart's need to cater to its diverse customer base will continue to drive contracts to women-owned suppliers even if the company has no explicit dollar goals.

“I suspect Walmart will continue to have one of the most inclusive supply chains in the World,” Prince-Eason wrote. “Any retailer's ability to serve the communities they operate in will continue to value understanding their customers, (many of which are women), in order to better provide products and services desired and no one understands customers better than Walmart."

Walmart's announcement came after the company spoke directly with conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck, who has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply.

Walmart confirmed to The Associated Press that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. The company also will stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees.

A Walmart spokesperson added that some of the changes were already in progress and not as a result of conversations that it had with Starbuck.

RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, senior director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program, said companies that “abandon” their commitments workplace inclusion policies “are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers, and shareholders.” She said the buying power of LGBTQ customers is powerful and noted that the index will have record participation of more than 1,400 companies in 2025.

Associated Press Staff Writer Matt Brown in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - A Walmart logo is displayed outside of a Walmart store, in Walpole, Mass., Sept. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

FILE - People walk by the Walmart booth during the CES tech show on Jan. 9, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)