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Israel Launches Strikes on Tyre as Tensions Escalate with Hezbollah
As tensions continue between the Israeli army and Hezbollah in Lebanon, witnesses from Reuters reported that Israel began a series of strikes on the historic coastal city of Tyre on Wednesday.
Reports indicate that Israel has launched six airstrikes on the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon so far. Footage showed smoke rising from the city.
Civilians fled from Tyre on Wednesday following a call from the Israeli army for residents to evacuate large parts of the city, which is home to thousands of displaced people.
Murtada Mahna, the director of the Disaster Management Unit in Tyre, stated, "The situation is very bad, and we are evacuating the residents."
Bilal Qashmar, the media officer in the unit, reported that many people are fleeing the city toward the suburbs. He remarked, "The entire city of Tyre is being evacuated," noting that residents began leaving as soon as the Israeli warning was issued.
He explained that around 14,500 people were still in Tyre on Tuesday, including thousands of displaced individuals from other southern areas.
In the city of Sidon, located north of Tyre, dozens of cars were lined up on the highway connecting the two cities in southern Lebanon, loaded with families carrying their belongings and necessities.
The National News Agency, Lebanon's official agency, reported that "some families that had not left Tyre previously began to evacuate their homes to distance themselves from the areas threatened by Israeli strikes."
The agency stated that Lebanese Civil Defense teams worked "to transport the elderly and citizens in difficult situations to safe locations following the Israeli threat to the city of Tyre."
Paramedics drove around the city urging residents to leave through loudspeakers.
The Israeli army requested that Tyre residents evacuate their homes before a "military operation" it intends to carry out against Hezbollah.
Israeli army spokesperson Avichai Adraee called on residents via the platform "X," attaching a message with a map of the area to avoid, urging them to "immediately move out of the area marked in red and head north of the Auja River." He stressed that "anyone near Hezbollah elements and its military facilities is putting their life at risk."
Additionally, there were live images of a rocket landing in Akko, northern Israel, causing material damage.
