Israeli army orders immediate evacuation of Beirut’s southern suburbs

2026-03-03 - 09:03

BEIRUT — The Israeli army issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including a warning for residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of imminent military action. At least 52 people were killed and 154 others injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese authorities. In a statement, the government's Disaster Management Unit said Israeli warplanes carried out 221 airstrikes in the country since early Monday. The Lebanese Health Ministry had earlier put the death toll at 31, with 149 other people injuried.Israel bombarded Beirut's southern suburbs and dozens of villages in south Lebanon on Monday after Hezbollah said that it had targeted a military site in northern Israel with a barrage of rockets and drones. Residents of the Haret Hreik and Ghobeiry neighborhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs were asked late Monday to evacuate immediately ahead of what it described as renewed targeting of the areas.Earlier Monday, the army warned residents of 30 towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of planned strikes. In a post on the US social media company X’s platform, Avichay Adraee, Israel's spokesperson for Arabic media, called on residents to leave immediately and head north beyond the designated line of villages shown on a map attached to the statement. "You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future," he told the residents. He claimed that Hezbollah’s activities were forcing the army to act “without any intention of harming” civilians. The towns listed in the warning include Naqoura, Bint Jbeil, Maroun al-Ras, Aita al-Shaab, Mays al-Jabal and several others across southern Lebanon. Many of the locations were across the south of Lebanon, which Israel regularly targets with the aim of hitting Hezbollah infrastructure. Lebanon's government on Monday took the unprecedented step of banning Hezbollah's military and security activity, prompting the Iran-backed group to lash out at the decision. Hezbollah is represented in both the government and Parliament, and the move came hours after it announced it had launched rockets and drones toward Israel early Monday to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks. — Agencies