Israel strikes Lebanese city of Tire after issuing evacuation order

Israel carried out at least four airstrikes on the historic Lebanese port city of Tire, hours after extending evacuation orders to several central districts, Lebanon’s state news agency reported.

Videos showed huge clouds of black smoke rising from the seafront, just a few hundred meters from the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Roman ruins. There are no immediate reports of any casualties.

The Israeli military had previously warned civilians to leave Israel, saying it intended to take “forceful” action against the Hezbollah armed group there.

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of residents have fled the city in response to Israel’s intense air campaign and ground invasion.

But before the strikes began, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Unit said about 14,000 people still lived in the city, including displaced people from other parts of the south.

“You could say that the entire city of Tire was evacuated,” Bilal Kashmar told the AFP news agency, adding that many people were heading to the outskirts.

Overnight, Lebanese media reported that Israeli aircraft carried out multiple attacks on the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley – all areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

The Israeli military said the attacks in Beirut targeted weapons warehouses and production plants, as well as command centers belonging to Hezbollah.

The military also said it had killed Hezbollah sector commanders in the southern areas of Jibchit, Jouaiya and Qana in airstrikes over the past few days and that its troops had killed about 70 Hezbollah fighters during operations in southern Lebanon aimed at dismantling the group’s infrastructure and weapons caches.

Hezbollah had no immediate comment.

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

Missile warning sirens blared in Tel Aviv, prompting senior U.S. officials traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to be ushered to a safe hotel room. It is unclear whether Blinken himself was also forced to take shelter.

Another rocket fire hit two factory buildings in the northern Israeli cities of Acre and Kiryat Bialik, causing damage but no injuries.

Israel has launched a full-scale military campaign against Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by rocket attacks.

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

Since then, more than 2,500 people have died in Lebanon, including 1,900 in the last five weeks, according to the country’s health ministry. Israeli authorities say 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.