BEIRUT: The Israeli military issued an urgent evacuation warning Saturday to residents of the coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, ahead of planned strikes on Hezbollah targets.
“Urgent warning to the residents of the city of Tyre... Hezbollah’s terrorist activity compels the IDF to operate against it with determination,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee said on X.
“For your safety, we call on you to evacuate your homes immediately, according to the area shown on the map, and move north of the Zahrani River,” he said, adding that the area extended to the Burj Al-Shamali refugee camp.
The health ministry said on Saturday that a hospital in Tyre was damaged by Israeli airstrikes on nearby buildings that wounded 11 people.
The director of the Lebanese Italian Hospital told the state-run National News Agency (NNA) that it would “remain open to provide the necessary medical care” despite the damage.
Strikes destroyed two buildings nearby, an AFP correspondent saw, shattering windows and causing suspended ceilings to collapse in the hospital, the facility’s management said.
Displaced women clean outside their tents at an unofficial camp erected along Beirut's seafront area during a sandstorm on April 3, 2026. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel to avenge the killing of the Iranian leader. (AFP)
A series of attacks hit the Tyre region on Saturday, including one on its port that struck a small boat and damaged others moored nearby, the AFP correspondent said.
Israel has been carrying out strikes across Lebanon and launched a ground invasion in the south after Hezbollah entered the war in the Middle East on the side of its backer Iran on March 2.
Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre, but around 20,000 remain, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages, despite Israeli evacuation warnings covering most of the city and a broad swathe of southern Lebanon.
The NNA also reported that Israeli forces abducted a man in Shebaa, near the Israeli border in the east, at around 3:00 am on Saturday.
‘No longer afraid’
On the edge of the southern suburbs of Beirut, Christians marked Good Friday in Shiyah with a procession around Saint Maroun Church.
Resident Hala Farah, 62, said she had never before missed the religious rites, even during repeated conflicts in the country.
“We’re always here, we have to hold on for the future of our children,” she told AFP at the entrance to the overflowing church.
Another worshipper, Patricia Haddad, 32, said she was no longer afraid of the bombardments.
“We got used to it, unfortunately,” she said.
Israel’s army has said it has struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon since last month, while Hezbollah said it had carried out 1,309 operations against Israeli targets.
