Israel tells residents of south Lebanon towns to evacuate as strikes on Beirut continue

Israel’s military told residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately on Thursday as it pressed on with cross-border incursions and struck what it called Hizbullah targets in a suburb of Beirut.
The latest warnings took the number of southern towns subject to evacuation calls to 70 and included the provincial capital Nabatieh, suggesting another Israeli military operation was imminent against the Iran-backed armed group.
Hizbullah also carried out new strikes, targeting what it called Israel’s “Sakhnin base” for military industries in Haifa Bay on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel with a salvo of rockets.
Israel, which has been at war with Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza for almost a year, sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday after two weeks of intense air strikes in a worsening conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks drawing in the United States.
Israel says the aim of its operations in Lebanon is to allow tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from northern Israel by Hizbullah bombardments during the Gaza war to return home safely.
More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, and nearly 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, most of them in the past two weeks, Lebanese authorities said.
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) said 28 healthcare workers had been killed in Lebanon in the previous 24 hours. WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said flight restrictions meant the agency would not be able to deliver a large planned shipment of trauma and medical supplies to Lebanon on Friday.
Hizbullah says it has repelled several land operations by Israeli troops, including with ambushes and in direct clashes.
Lebanese security sources say Israeli troops have entered Lebanese territory and been pushed back several times in recent days, without setting up a permanent presence.
Rocket sirens wailed constantly in northern Israeli towns, sending residents running for shelter, as Hizbullah kept up its cross-border fire.
The Lebanese army said two soldiers were killed by Israeli strikes in separate incidents in south Lebanon on Thursday, one in an attack on a military post and another in a strike on a rescue mission with the Lebanese Red Cross.
In Beirut’s southern suburb known as Dahiye, a dense neighbourhood where Hizbullah holds sway, several explosions were heard on Thursday and several large plumes of smoke were rising after heavy Israeli strikes.
Hizbullah said it detonated a bomb against Israeli forces infiltrating a southern Lebanese village and attacked Israeli forces near the border.
Overnight, Israel bombed central Beirut in an attack the Lebanese health ministry said killed nine people.
A Hizbullah-linked civil defence group said seven of its staff, including two medics, were killed in the Beirut attack.
Israel also said it struck a municipality building in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, killing 15 Hizbullah members and destroying many weapons. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in ground combat on Wednesday in south Lebanon as its forces thrust into its northern neighbour.
Israel is also weighing its options for retaliation against Iran.
Tehran launched its largest ever assault on Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hizbullah leaders and its operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Tehran said its attack was over, barring further provocation, but Israel has said it will hit back. The United States has said Iran will face “severe consequences” and that it would work with Israel, while warning Iran not to act against US forces in the region. US president Joe Biden said on Thursday that the US is discussing the possibility of Israeli attacks on Iranian oil infrastructure.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking in Doha, said Tehran would be ready to respond and warned against “silence” in the face of Israel’s “warmongering”.
“Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces,” he said. – Reuters