The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, has issued the latest forced evacuation order for residents of Tyre, Lebanon’s fifth biggest city, ahead of attacks.
“Urgent warning to the residents of the city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter, and the camps and surrounding neighbourhoods,” he wrote, urging residents in the southern Lebanese city to “evacuate immediately” and “move north beyond the Zahrani river”.
The strikes will be carried out because Hezbollah violated the ceasefire agreement and is targeting “Israel’s home front”, Adraee said, but these attacks, which occur on a near-daily basis, often are reported to kill civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure.
More than a million people have been displaced by Israel’s renewed war on Lebanon, sparking a refugee and humanitarian crisis with the sweeping evacuation orders forcing people to flee their homes, often with very short notice or no notice at all. Many have few resources, limited access to basic services, food, shelter and healthcare.
The IDF says it is countering the Hezbollah threat against northern Israel and has been demolishing homes, occupying territory in the south of Lebanon and launching attacks on towns and villages with impunity under this justification.
Iran, which has backed and funded Hezbollah for decades, has made it clear that no peace deal with the US can be signed until Israel ceases its attacks in Lebanon (not just Beirut, but in the south as well).
Lebanon was drawn into the war when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on 2 March to avenge the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s former supreme leader.