Israeli attacks, threats fuel mass displacement crisis in southern Lebanon
Al Jazeera
Tens of thousands have fled their homes in Lebanon’s south as Israel issues forced evacuation order for entire area.
Israel has issued a forced evacuation order to all residents of southern Lebanon, worsening a wave of mass displacement as the Israeli military continues to launch deadly attacks across the country.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Israeli army ordered Lebanese civilians to “evacuate [their] homes immediately and move north beyond the Litani River” as it planned to bomb what it described as Hezbollah targets.
“Tens of thousands of people are being forced north,” Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported from the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
At least 83,000 people have been displaced from their homes across Lebanon since Israel launched renewed air strikes on the country earlier this week, according to the latest figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs.
Intensified cross-border fighting resumed on Monday after Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israeli territory following Saturday’s start of attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran, which backs the Lebanese group.
Hezbollah says its attack is in response to the killing of Iran’s Khamenei and ‘in defence of Lebanon and its people’.
President Masoud Pezeshkian condemns killing of Iran’s supreme leader as ‘a great crime’, according to his office.
Iran confirms targeting US bases across the Middle East.