Israel strikes Tyre after declaring south Lebanon areas combat zones
The broad warning, the first of its kind since a 17 April ceasefire, landed as many Lebanese were attempting to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
With residents of Tyre waking to fresh evacuation orders, the Israeli military said it had launched a new wave of strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure around the southern Lebanese city, opening another volatile chapter in a conflict that is again widening.
A day earlier, Israel had designated all territory south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River — an area about 40km from the border that includes Tyre — as “combat zones” and urged civilians to leave before attacks on the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
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The broad warning, the first of its kind since a 17 April ceasefire, landed as many Lebanese were attempting to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
In a new evacuation notice issued early this morning to residents in parts of Tyre, the Israeli military said it was “compelled to take forceful action” against Hezbollah. In a later statement on Telegram, it said strikes were under way and described the targets as the group’s infrastructure.
Israel has said this week that it will escalate operations in Lebanon and announced an expansion of ground activity there, while Hezbollah said its fighters had engaged Israeli forces beyond an Israeli-declared “yellow line” in the south.
Israel’s army chief Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Zamir said “we are intensifying our operations in order to strike ever more severe blows to the Hezbollah organisation”.
People move through the rubble of a residential building hit by an Israeli strike near Burj al-Shamali
Military talks are expected tomorrow at the Pentagon between Lebanese and Israeli delegations, ahead of a new round of direct negotiations scheduled for next week and aimed at ending the hostilities.
The Lebanese side will be represented by a delegation of six officers led by the army’s director of operations, Georges Rizkallah.
A military source said the delegation would “emphasise the need for a ceasefire, and will present the army’s plan for a state weapons monopoly and the extension of state authority across the country”.
Earlier, the Israeli military had also issued evacuation warnings covering the southern city of Nabatieh, large parts of Tyre and nearby areas.
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The NNA also reported a string of strikes on Nabatieh city, saying they caused “huge destruction” in residential neighbourhoods yesterday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said yesterday that the overall death toll since the war began on 2 March had reached 3,269, up by 56 from a day earlier after heavy Israeli strikes.
Lebanon’s army said one of its soldiers was also killed in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon.
The NNA said Israeli strikes had also hit other parts of the south and the eastern Bekaa valley in recent days.
Hezbollah said its fighters “clashed with the enemy forces at point-blank range” in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, just beyond the Israeli-declared “yellow line” in south Lebanon where Israeli troops have been operating.
On Tuesday, an Israeli military official said soldiers had started operating outside the “yellow line”, which stretches around 10 kilometres inside Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah also said it had carried out three drone attacks on Israeli positions near the countries’ shared border in northern Israel.
Israel’s military said several explosive drones landed inside its territory, but reported no injuries.
Since Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into the Middle East war with rocket fire on Israel in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley and warned civilians to leave.
Those strikes have gathered pace in recent days, especially around the West Bekaa town of Mashghara.
The area forms a link between south Lebanon and Hezbollah strongholds in the northern Bekaa, making it a key supply route for the group.
Lebanese military expert Hassan Jouni said the West Bekaa “is a necessary corridor for Hezbollah members if they want to move between the Bekaa and the south” and warned it could become the focus of further Israeli attacks.
He said Israeli operations could soon widen to “target the north Bekaa intensively or even Beirut’s southern suburbs”, two areas that have been relatively spared since the ceasefire.
