Israel carried out at least four airstrikes in the historic Lebanese port city of Tyre, hours after it extended evacuation orders to several central areas, Lebanese state media said.
Videos showed huge clouds of black smoke rising from the beach just a few hundred meters away from the Unesco World Heritage-listed Roman ruins. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Israeli military has previously warned civilians to leave, saying it will act “forcefully” against the armed group Hezbollah there.
Tens of thousands of residents have already fled the city in recent weeks due to Israel’s intense air campaign and ground attacks.
But before the strikes began, the spokesman for the Disaster Management Unit said that about 14,000 people were still living in the city, including those displaced from other areas in the south.
“You can say that the whole city of Tire is being evacuated,” Bilal Kashmar told AFP, adding that many people were moving to the suburbs.
During the night, Lebanese media reported that Israeli planes carried out several strikes in areas south of the capital Beirut, in southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa Valley – all areas where Hezbollah is strong.
Israel’s military said the strikes in Beirut targeted weapons depots and production facilities, as well as Hezbollah-affiliated command centers.
The army also claimed to have killed Hezbollah factory commanders in the southern areas of Jibchit, Jouaiya, and Qana in airstrikes in the past few days, and that their forces have killed approximately 70 Hezbollah fighters during operations in southern Lebanon to disperse the group’s forces. infrastructure and arsenals.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
However, the group said its fighters fired rockets into Israel on Wednesday, including one this morning that targeted the Gilot intelligence center, north of the central city of Tel Aviv.
A rocket siren went off in Tel Aviv, prompting the high-ranking US officials who were traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to be ushered into a safe room in their hotel. It is not known whether Blinken was also forced to take refuge or not.
Another flurry of rockets hit two factories in the northern Israeli cities of Acre and Kiryat Bialik, causing damage but no injuries.
Israel launched its all-out military campaign against Hezbollah after a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the Gaza war, saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of Israeli border residents displaced by rocket attacks.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of the Palestinians on October 8, 2023, the day after Israel launched a deadly attack on its ally Hamas.
More than 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, including 1,900 in the past five weeks, according to the country’s health ministry. Israeli authorities say 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the Golan Heights.
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