The aftermath of an Israeli strike on a solar farm in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre [Getty]
The Israeli military on Wednesday ordered hundreds of thousands of people living in southern Lebanon to flee north as their warplanes intensified airstrikes across the country.
“Urgent warning to the people of south Lebanon: You must immediately move to the north of the Litani river,” the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on social media.
Israel has launched a wave of deadly attacks across the country after Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in support of Iran on Sunday amid the US-Israeli war on the country.
At least 77 people have been killed and hundreds injured in the aerial assault since Sunday. Hezbollah’s attacks came one day after when the Iran-backed group began attacks into northern Israel following the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The displacement order was Israel’s most dramatic move yet, affecting around eight percent of Lebanon’s territory that is home to hundreds of thousands of people.
It includes the large coastal city of Tyre, which is thought to be home to as many as 200,000 people.
Some 83,000 people have already been displaced since Sunday under Israeli bombardment and displacement orders affecting dozens of villages.
Human rights organisations said the sweeping order raised serious concerns about the safety of civilians.
“Calling on everyone who lives south of the Litani to evacuate immediately raises serious legal and humanitarian red flags and fears for the safety of civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The order came as Israel intensified airstrikes across the country, targeting Hezbollah as well as Palestinian factions in Beirut’s southern suburbs and areas of the south.
At least eight people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Thursday morning, including senior Hamas official Wassim Atallah al-Ali, who was assassinated in a drone strike in Beddawi, a Palestinian refugee camp north of Tripoli.
Six people were killed in strikes in the south, including the mayor of a village near Nabatieh and his wife, according to the National News Agency. Two children and their parents were killed in a separate Israeli attack in a nearby village.
Hezbollah’s leader vowed Wednesday to continue its attacks against Israeli positions and said the organisation had launched at least 15 attacks on targets as far away as Tel Aviv.
“We are facing aggression… our choice is to confront it until the ultimate sacrifice, and we will not surrender,” Naim Qassem said in his first speech since the latest round of fighting broke out.
There were reports of clashes between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops, who have staged incursions into Lebanese villages close to the border.
Israeli officials have refused to rule out launching an extensive ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has launched some of its attacks from south of the Litani, an area which the Lebanese army previously said had been demilitarised under its plan to disarm the Iran-backed group.
