Israel bombs the Lebanese city of Tire after evacuation orders

Israel launched at least four air strikes on the historic Lebanese coastal city of Tyre, hours after expanding evacuation orders to include several central neighborhoods.

Videos showed huge clouds of black smoke rising from the waterfront area, just a few hundred meters from the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Roman ruins.

The official Lebanese News Agency said the strikes caused “massive destruction” to homes and infrastructure, but there were no reports of casualties.

The Israeli army said it targeted Hezbollah’s command and control centers, including the headquarters of the southern front.

The Arab Army spokesman had previously issued a map of the neighborhoods that he said would act “forcefully” against the Iran-backed armed group.

Tens of thousands of residents have already fled the city in recent weeks in response to an intensified Israeli air campaign and ground invasion.

But before the strikes began, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Unit said that about 14,000 people were still living in the city, including those displaced from elsewhere in the south.

“It can be said that the entire city of Tire is being evacuated,” Bilal Kashmir told AFP, adding that many people were heading towards the suburbs.

Wael Farraj said that he fled with his family in response to the evacuation order, and that they were sitting by the sea when they heard that their house had been destroyed.

“We took the children, and we took what we could,” he told Reuters news agency while inspecting the damage. “We went back and looked and found that our house had collapsed.”

“We are staying here and standing. We will stay here… among the rubble.”

Another man, Issam Awad, said: “We were like everyone else, we were sitting, and suddenly, without warning, the bombing started.”

“Thank God, we are all fine, and no one was injured in the explosions.”

The Israeli military said the strikes were part of its efforts to target Hezbollah activities And obstructing its attempts to rebuild its military capabilities.

The group was also accused of systematically controlling civilian and religious areas to carry out attacks in a way that endangered the Lebanese population.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli aircraft carried out several air strikes elsewhere in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley on Wednesday.

Areas were also targeted during the night, along with the southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

The Israeli army said that the strikes in Beirut targeted weapons storage and manufacturing facilities, in addition to Hezbollah command centers.

The pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen TV channel said on Wednesday evening that its office in the city had been subjected to an Israeli bombing.

The army also said that it had killed Hezbollah sector leaders in the southern regions of Jibshit, al-Juway’ and Qana in air strikes over the past few days, and that its forces had killed about 70 Hezbollah fighters during operations inside southern Lebanon to dismantle the group’s infrastructure. And weapons caches.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

However, the group said its fighters fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Wednesday, including one in the morning that targeted the Gelot intelligence base, located north of the central city of Tel Aviv.

Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, prompting senior US officials traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to move them to a secure room in their hotel. It is not known whether Blinken himself was also forced to take shelter.

Another rocket barrage hit two factory buildings in the cities of Acre and Kiryat Bialik in northern Israel, causing damage but no casualties.

Hezbollah later confirmed that Hashem Safi al-Din, who was expected to become the group’s next leader, was killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Beirut on October 4.

Safi al-Din was a cousin of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in another raid in the capital the previous week.

Israel launched its wide-ranging military campaign against Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israel’s border areas displaced by rocket attacks.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of the Palestinians on October 8, 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel.

More than 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, including 1,900 in the past five weeks, according to the country’s Ministry of Health. Israeli authorities say that 59 people were killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.