Residents of Beirut's densely packed southern suburbs are fleeing their homes after the Israeli military issued a call for the hundreds of thousands of people living in the Hezbollah stronghold to leave the area immediately or risk being killed in the Israeli campaign.
Issued on: 05/03/2026 - 07:19Modified: 05/03/2026 - 17:39
Israel issued an unprecedented "evacuation warning" on Thursday for the entirety of Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah, sending residents in the district of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing in a panic.
The warning followed a fresh wave of Israeli attacks on Iran, which again lashed out at Gulf nations Qatar and Bahrain as the Middle East war reverberated throughout the region and far beyond.
Lebanon was dragged into the conflict on Monday, when the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli strikes that launched the war.
Israel responded with air strikes and sent ground troops into some Lebanese border villages, and told residents of a large area of south Lebanon to leave in anticipation of military operations there.
In a message to the residents of Beirut's southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, an Israeli military spokesman said: "Save your lives and evacuate your residences immediately."
Such warnings typically foreshadow large-scale attacks, and massive traffic jams formed on the outskirts of the suburbs, as people fired guns in the air, urging locals to leave as soon as possible.
Earlier in the day, Israel said its forces had hit "several command centres belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation" in south Beirut.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich posted a video on X from near the Lebanon border, in which he said that Dahiyeh would soon resemble parts of Gaza, where Israel's two-year military campaign against Hezbollah's ally Hamas has left much of the territory in ruins.
"You wanted to bring hell on us but you have brought hell upon yourselves. The Dahiyeh will look like Khan Younis. Our northern residents will soon live in quiet, peace and security," said Smotrich, who sits on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet.
Lebanese authorities say that Israeli strikes have killed at least 102 people and wounded 638 more since Monday. Tens of thousands more have been driven from their homes.
The Israeli army announced this week its intention to establish a "buffer zone" in southern Lebanon while its forces began advancing into border towns.
During its most recent war with Hezbollah, which officially ended with a ceasefire in November 2024, Israel carried out the widespread destruction of border villages and towns, using a combination of air strikes, controlled demolitions and the bulldozing of fruit and olive tree groves, both before and after the ceasefire.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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