Beirut: Fresh Israeli strikes hit Lebanon’s south and east on Thursday, official media reported and AFP images showed, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders, including the first for east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
Israel has been pounding south and east Lebanon, areas where Hezbollah holds sway, since all-out war erupted on September 23.
In the south, AFPTV footage captured smoke billowing after the Israeli military on X warned residents in and near a building in Al-Hawsh, just south of the southern coastal city of Tyre, to evacuate.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that “enemy aircraft launched a strike that targeted” the Al Hawsh area, also reporting a strike in Burj Al Shemali near the city, after Israeli army evacuation orders.
The Israeli military subsequently issued similar evacuation warnings for other locations in south Lebanon.
In the country’s east, the Israeli army for the first time issued evacuation orders for parts of the Bekaa Valley, after repeatedly pounding the region with intense air strikes over the past three weeks.
The NNA said that “enemy aircraft targeted a building in the village of Safri on the Riyak-Baalbek international highway” in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, “around 10 minutes after the enemy threatened to target it and ordered its evacuation”.
It also said “enemy aircraft launched a strike on the village of Saraain Al Tahta” and Tamnine nearby, also after Israeli army evacuation orders.
“Urgent warning to the residents of the Bekaa region, specifically those located in the building marked on the map in the Tamnine area,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X in one of the evacuation orders.
“You are located near facilities and interests that belong to Hezbollah, which will be targeted by the Defence Forces (army) in the near future.”
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said recently that one quarter of Lebanese territory was under Israeli military displacement orders.
The Israeli army has issued blanket evacuation orders for dozens of south Lebanon villages.
