Israeli army orders Lebanese civilians to leave areas within 60km of border

Displaced people from south Lebanon watched the latest developments at the border with fear and defiance as Israel claims to have launched ground assault

Israeli army tanks in a staging area in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on Tuesday. AP

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The Israeli army warned residents of nearly 30 villages in south Lebanon to leave their homes immediately on Tuesday, amid preparations for ground invasion.

The eviction warning came as Israel claimed it had begun a ground invasion of Lebanon, escalating its weeks-long campaign against Hezbollah and increasing the risk of a wider regional conflict. But contradicting the Israeli claim, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) said there was “no ground incursion” in the south of the country on Tuesday morning.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X: “You must immediately head to the north of the Awali river, save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately.”

The Awali lies about 60km from the border, farther north than the Litani river, which defines the northern boundary of a UN-designated buffer zone established after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Residents who remained in their towns in south Lebanon said on Monday night that the roads were either unsafe or cut off. Others have nowhere else to go. “I will leave, but where would I go?,” a mother of three from the border town of Burj el Moulouk told The National over the phone.

Those who have left watch the latest developments at the border with anxiety and defiance. “Of course, we are scared; if someone tells you they're not, they're lying,” said a displaced woman from the border town of Ramiah.

She has been displaced twice – once at the start of the war in Gaza and when Israel launched a deadly air campaign on parts of Lebanon over a week ago.

“But I'm 100 per cent sure that Hezbollah won't let them in. They are fighting them back and I have no doubt we will return to our land,” she added.

For the past two weeks, the young woman, who wished not to be named, has been staying in a school with her family in the south suburb of Beirut. Like most displaced people in this makeshift shelter, she said she has lost her home in the relentless Israeli shelling.

“What are they trying to invade? They already destroyed our house but it's our land, we won't let them it,“ Sobieh Nassef, 65, another displaced person from Zbeqin, also near the border, told The National.

These families are among the million people displaced by Israeli air strikes, according to Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who said the country is facing “one of the most dangerous phases” in its history.

“Around a million of our people have been displaced because of the devastating war that Israel is waging on Lebanon,” Mr Mikati told a meeting with UN representatives, according to the National News Agency. “We urgently call for more aid to reinforce our continuing efforts to provide basic support to displaced civilians.”

Mr Mikati and Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Lebanon, began a $426 million appeal to mobilise urgent resources for civilians affected by the conflict. In the past two weeks, more than 1,000 people have been killed and more than 6,000 have been injured. Since October 2023, an estimated one million people have been directly affected or displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israel and Lebanon cross-border strikes – in pictures

The UN said: “These alarming figures only continue to rise, further exacerbating a crisis that has overwhelmed the nation’s already strained resources and infrastructure, particularly impacting vulnerable populations who lack access to essential services and basic necessities.”

Israeli troops began “targeted ground raids” shortly before midnight local time on Monday. Lebanese media reported heavy shelling in the villages of Kfar Kila, Odeisseh and Khiyam, just across the border. There were also explosions in the coastal town of Ras Naqoura, and the Israeli army said it carried out “targeted” air strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israel's military said its ground raids into southern Lebanon were aimed at Hezbollah strongholds that threaten Israel, not a war against the Lebanese people.

“These localised ground raids will target Hezbollah strongholds that threaten Israeli towns, kibbutzim and communities along our border,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said. “Hezbollah turned Lebanese villages next to Israeli villages into military bases ready for an attack on Israel.”

The incursions follow days of intense air strikes intended to eliminate Hezbollah’s leadership and degrade its weapons stockpiles. On Friday, Hezbollah's long-standing leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a strike on Beirut. The Israeli military thinks it has now eliminated all but one of Hezbollah’s top 11 commanders.

Hezbollah said that it had targeted Israeli troops across the border in Metula with artillery fire on Tuesday. Also, the group said it fired missiles at the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and at a military intelligence unit on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

The Israeli army said three rockets were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel on Tuesday morning. Two rockets launched at the Upper Galilee were shot down by air defence, while the third was launched towards Bar'am and fell in an open area, according to the military.

The Lebanese army has denied reports that its forces have withdrawn from southern border posts for several kilometres.

“The army command would like to clarify that the military units deployed in the south are carrying out a repositioning of some front line observation points within their designated sectors of responsibility,” the army said.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has offered support to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for “dismantling attack infrastructure” along the border with Lebanon, after Israel launched “targeted ground raids” on Hezbollah.

“We agreed on the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that Lebanese [Hezbollah] cannot conduct October 7-style attacks on Israel’s northern communities,” Mr Austin said on X after he spoke to Mr Gallant.

He warned against “the serious consequences for Iran in the event Iran chooses to launch a direct military attack against Israel”.

In Syria, three people were killed and nine injured in Israeli strikes on the capital Damascus early on Tuesday, a military source said. “At 2.05am the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression with warplanes and drones from the direction of Golan Heights targeting a number of posts in the city of Damascus,” the source told the official Sana news agency.

Israel struck a highly secure area of Damascus overnight, according to pro-government sources, in an attack that state media said killed three civilians and damaged property. Syrian state television said one of its presenters was among the dead.

The attack occurred near a building belonging to the state’s telecom company in a district called the Mazzeh Villas, near the road from Damascus to Beirut.

The target of the attack was not immediately known, but Israel has struck the same area several times since the Gaza war began in October, killing Hezbollah and Iranian operatives, according to Syrian opposition sources. In recent years, residential buildings in the area, which is near the Iranian embassy, have been increasingly bought or rented by Iranian military personnel as well as members of Hezbollah and other militias loyal to Iran, residents said.

Khaled Yacoub Oweis contributed to this report from Amman