Heavy transport trucks carry Israeli tanks along a road near the Lebanon border in Upper Galilee, northern Israel, on Thursday. The Israeli military said it is conducting strikes across Lebanon targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and personnel. Photo by Atef Safadi/EPA
BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 5 (UPI) — The Israeli Army on Thursday ordered a mass evacuation of Beirut’s southern suburbs — a main stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah — in an unprecedented warning ahead of massive strikes, causing widespread panic among fleeing residents and heavy traffic jams in the capital.
Army Arabic spokesman Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee issued the warning for entire densely populated neighborhoods in the southern suburbs — citing Bourj al-Barajneh, Hadath, Haret Hreik and Chiyah — and calling on their residents to immediately leave their homes ahead of potential strikes to save their lives.
Adraee designated where fleeing people should go, saying the inhabitants of Burj al-Barajneh and Hadath should move east toward Mount Lebanon, while residents of Haret Hreik and Chiyah were instructed to head north.
The panicked residents immediately started to flee in their cars, causing heavy traffic with many roads and main intersections in Beirut totally blocked.
Palestinian refugees in nearby shantytowns also started to flee, a local radio station reported.
More schools in Beirut opened for the newly displaced, joining thousands of others who fled their villages in southern Lebanon, which Israeli strikes have targeted since Monday.
Israeli English-language websites quoted Israeli defense officials as saying that the warning precedes what is expected to be a large-scale strike in the area, describing the planned operation as one of the most dramatic developments so far in the fighting along the northern front.
The officials said such evacuation warnings increase internal pressure on Hezbollah, as they force large civilian populations in its strongholds to flee ahead of Israeli strikes.
Shortly before, the Lebanese government ordered the security and military services to investigate whether any members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard are present in Lebanon, immediately prevent any of their military and security activities, and arrest them for deportation.
Information Minister Paul Morcos said the decision was adopted unanimously, although some ministers objected to it — apparently referring to two ministers representing Hezbollah in the government.
Morcos said the government also decided to reinstate a visa requirement for Iranian citizens entering Lebanon.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denounced Hezbollah for “dragging Lebanon into adventures … without questioning its catastrophic implications on the country and its people, serving foreign interests.”
On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said that his group has resumed fighting to compel Israel to halt its aggression and withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories. He argued that the move was not tied to the U.S.‑led war on Iran and vowed to resist regardless of the sacrifices.
It was Qassem’s first speech since Hezbollah fired missiles and drones into northern Israel early Monday — less than two days since the assassination of Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
That triggered retaliatory Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas that have so far killed 77 people, injured 527 and caused displacement of at least 300,000.
