BEIRUT: Israel bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut late on Thursday, hours after ordering residents of the large, densely-populated area to evacuate.
The Israeli military said it had begun striking infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in Dahiyeh neighborhood.
Lebanese state media said a strike hit the area while AFPTV footage showed an explosion and a plume of smoke rising from the site.
The evacuation order for the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs sparked panic as people fled a swathe of the Lebanese capital on the fourth day of full-scale hostilities between the Iran-backed group and Israel.
Fire errupts from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Haret Hreik neighborhood in southern Beirut late on Thursday. (AFP)
An Israeli military spokesperson, in a post on X, ordered residents of the southern suburbs to move east and north, posting a map showing four sprawling districts of the capital he said they must leave, part of the area is adjacent to Beirut airport.
“Save your lives, evacuate your homes immediately,” Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted, saying that any movement southwards may endanger their lives.
Roads out of the suburbs were clogged as people fled by car and on foot, television footage showed. Gunfire was heard in the southern suburbs, warning residents to leave.
Smoke billows after Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs. (Reuters)
Later on Thursday, the Israeli military warned residents of three villages in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region to evacuate immediately.
“Urgent warning to the residents of the Bekaa region, specifically the residents of the villages and towns of Douris, Brital, and Majdaloun: Hezbollah’s activities in the area are forcing the IDF (Israeli military) to operate forcefully against it in order to target its military infrastructure,” Adraee said in another post on X.
“To ensure your safety, we urge you to evacuate the area immediately and head west.”
Beirut traffic on Thursday after the Israeli army warns residents to evacuate the city's southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran. (Reuters)
Lebanon was pulled into the war in the Middle East on Monday, when Hezbollah opened fire, sparking intensified Israeli airstrikes largely focused on the southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and eastern Lebanon.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military ordered residents to leave an area of southern Lebanon amounting to about 8 percent of its territory.
Israeli bombardment and warnings have already forced tens of thousands of Lebanese to flee homes in the southern suburbs and the south this week.
The Lebanese health ministry said 123 people have been killed. There have been no reports of fatalities in Israel as a result of Hezbollah attacks.
A woman and her child prepare to leave Beirut's southern suburbs after Israel warned residents to evacuate on Thursday. (AFP)
Beirut’s predominantly Shiite Muslim southern suburbs are among the capital’s most densely populated areas. The area was pounded by Israeli airstrikes during a war with Hezbollah in 2024, and during a previous war with Israel in 2006.
Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that the Israeli military’s call for residents of vast areas of southern Lebanon to evacuate raised “serious risks of violations of the laws of war.”
“Calling on everyone who lives south of the Litani (River) to evacuate immediately raises serious legal and humanitarian red flags and fears for the safety of civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Displaced people fleeing Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, sit in traffic on a highway in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday. (AP)
“How are older people, the sick and people with disabilities going to be able to evacuate immediately? And how will their safety be guaranteed as they leave?” he said in a statement from the rights group.
HRW said “the sweeping nature” of Israel’s call raised “concerns that their purpose is not to protect civilians,” adding that the area was home to hundreds of thousands of people.
The evacuation call “raises serious risks of violations of the laws of war,” it added.
Meanwhile, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned Thursday that the southern Beirut suburb Dahiyeh, a stronghold of Hezbollah, will face devastation similar to Gaza.
“Very soon Dahiyeh will resemble Khan Yunis,” Smotrich said, referring to a southern Gaza city which has been heavily damaged by Israeli bombardments during the two-year war with Hamas.
Cars sit in traffic on a highway as residents flee Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Thursday. (AP)
“Hezbollah made a mistake, and it will pay a heavy price. We are striking at the head of the octopus in Iran, and at the same time we will sever Hezbollah’s arm,” he said in a video statement as he visited Israel’s northern border.
Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed said that 83,847 displaced people had registered in shelters due to the Israeli evacuation warnings, noting that the number of shelter centers had reached 399 across Lebanon.
*AFP and Reuters
