Israel issues displacement order for large area of southern Lebanon as conflict escalates
Latest order comes after Hezbollah and Iran launched joint attack on more than 50 targets including Israeli military bases
Israel has issued a sweeping new displacement order for south Lebanon, instructing residents up to 25 miles away from the border with Israel to head north, as its conflict with Hezbollah continues to escalate.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military on Thursday ordered all residents to head north of the Zahrani River “for their safety,” before a bombing campaign against what it said were Hezbollah targets.
The order includes major Lebanese cities including Nabatieh and dozens of villages.
The IDF also issued an evacuation order for a neighbourhood in central Beirut near a row of restaurants, saying the Israeli military would strike a building there.
The latest orders come just days after Israel issued instructions for people south of the Litani River and Beirut’s southern suburbs. They are likely to exacerbate Lebanon’s already dire displacement crisis which has resulted in nearly a million people becoming internally displaced in 10 days of fighting.
“Where can I go? Many people have gone to Beirut and returned because there’s nowhere to stay. I don’t want to be on the streets,” said Hamza Zbeeb, a 48-year-old member of the municipality of Nimiriya, one of the villages included in the evacuation order.
Israel’s newest displacement order comes as its military leadership weighs an escalated campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, after the pro-Iran group launched its most intense attacks yet on Israel on Wednesday night.
Hezbollah let off successive volleys of rockets and drone swarms at Israel on Wednesday night, injuring two people, with most of the projectiles either being intercepted or falling into open areas. It continued firing into northern Israel on Thursday, with warning sirens sounding in Safed and surrounding towns.
Israel quickly responded by bombarding Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon, which continued into Thursday afternoon, rocking the capital city with periodic airstrikes.
The exchange was the most severe yet in the 10-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, in which Hezbollah and Iran coordinated their attacks for the first time.
In a statement carried by the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the “joint and integrated operation” involved a missile attack by Iran carried out in conjunction with missile and drone fire from Hezbollah.
Hezbollah launched more than 200 rocket towards Israeli territory, the statement added, including Israeli military bases in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Beersheba.
In Israeli border communities, many spoke of a “very difficult” night.
“Last night was a bit crazy. I don’t get anxious usually but all the walls were shaking,” said Daniel Dorfman, 43, in Metula, a town a few hundred metres from Lebanon. “It’s a little bit frightening. Here we get zero warning of any attack. You hear the explosions of the interception before you hear the sirens.”
Hezbollah’s operation, dubbed “Operation Chewed Wheat” – a reference to a Qur’anic verse about reducing one’s enemies to chewed wheat – was a sharp escalation by the group, believed to be battered by nearly two years of daily airstrikes by Israel.
Israeli warplanes began bombing Lebanon nearly immediately after Hezbollah’s strikes. The skies of Beirut were lit red and windows around the capital city shook as Israel unleashed its most powerful bombardment of the southern suburbs yet in this round of fighting. Videos showed collapsed buildings in southern Lebanon and streets choked with smoke illuminated by roaring flames.
“It was a very difficult night; what can I say? Bombing all night,” said Ali Hariri, a lawyer and first responder with the ‘Beit al-Talaba’ organisation in Nabatieh, as he stood amid the rubble-strewn streets of Nabatieh.
Israel also carried out a strike in the early hours of Thursday in the neighbourhood of Ramlet al-Baida in central Beirut, on the corniche where many displaced families had been sleeping rough for the last week. The strike hit the densely packed area, with videos showing at least two men lying dead on the seaside walkway. Lebanon’s health ministry said that at least 12 people had been killed and 28 injured in the strike.
“It was terrifying. We heard them hit once and then once again almost immediately. We didn’t think they would hit here. What’s here? It’s just the sea,” said Riyadh al-Lattah, a 57-year-old woodworker from the southern suburbs of Beirut who was camped out with his wife and five children across the street from the impact site in Ramlet al-Baida.
Elsewhere, the health ministry said that at least 17 people were injured in the strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, though more casualties were expected from other strikes throughout the country.
In southern Lebanon, Israel’s military spokesperson said that it was hitting Hezbollah’s missile launchers. They warned residents that it would “soon act with overwhelming force” against Hezbollah and that residents should distance themselves from affected areas immediately, echoing displacement orders issued for vast swathes of the country earlier last week.
Human rights groups said that the orders amount to forced displacement and could amount to war crimes. They also said the Israeli military should still take efforts to prevent civilian harm, even if civilians do not evacuate.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 634 people and injured 1,586 in less than 10 days of fighting.
Wednesday night’s escalation took place as Israeli officials signalled a possible widening of its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel’s security cabinet met on Wednesday night to discuss Lebanon, where officials sought to stop the group’s ability to launch rockets into Israeli territory.
On Wednesday, head of the Israeli military Lt Gen Eyal Zamir ordered reinforcements to its northern border, redeploying the Golani Brigade from Gaza to the north. The Golani Brigade is specialised in offensive ground operations, and analysts said the force’s redeployment could signal a larger ground invasion of Lebanon.
Yaakov Selavan, the deputy mayor of the Golan regional council, said residents of the north of Israel expected the government and military to “finish the job [with Hezbollah] once and for all” and that the military should advance as far north as the Litani River, 20 miles (30km) into Lebanon.
“It is non-arguable. We are not looking to occupy land. We are just looking to survive,” Selavan said.
Hezbollah is reportedly preparing itself for a full-scale Israeli invasion of south Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters have been fighting with Israeli troops in south Lebanon, particularly around strategic points in the eastern parts of the country such as hilltops around al-Khiam. Small units of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force have been acting autonomously to ambush Israeli troops, which have been conducting in-and-out raids in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has reportedly spent the year-and-a-half since its November 2024 ceasefire with Israel rebuilding its capabilities and reconsolidating its organisation. Israel had killed most of the senior leadership of the group and killed or incapacitated thousands of its fighters during the 13-month war, though exact numbers are not known.
Lebanon’s government has called on Hezbollah to stop its firing into Israel, and has insisted that the state should hold the monopoly of violence in the country. But its understaffed, under-equipped army has so far been unable to confront the powerful armed group directly. The government also fears provoking civil strife in Lebanon, which has a long, painful history of sectarian division and violence.
The Lebanese government, with French assistance, has appealed to the international community for a ceasefire in Lebanon, calling for negotiations with Israel while vowing to curb Hezbollah’s activities in the country. Israel and the US however, are sceptical that the Lebanese government can disarm Hezbollah, with the former seemingly determined to take on the group itself.