Israeli army orders Tyre residents out for second time in a week

About a third of Lebanon is now uninhabitable under Israeli eviction orders

Rescuers search for survivors at the site of an Israeli air strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Monday. AFP

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The Israeli army launched a series of raids across the Lebanese city of Tyre on Monday, shortly after issuing new displacement orders for residents of the coastal metropolis to leave immediately and go north of the country's Awali River.

It is the second order in less than a week, with the first issued on Wednesday. The latest instruction comes after an Israeli raid on the city overnight that killed seven people and wounded 17, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. The strike levelled a residential building in the Raml neighbourhood. Efforts to rescue people trapped in the rubble were continuing on Monday.

Tyre’s Union of Municipalities received a call from the Israeli army shortly before the strikes, ordering people to leave certain streets and areas of the city. Lebanese civil defence crews patrolled the neighbourhoods, warning people to flee. “To our beloved residents, for your own safety, you must leave immediately,” they said.

Tyre is one of the largest cities in south Lebanon, with the areas under Israeli threat typically densely populated, but largely emptied since last week when Israel issued its first displacement order. It is said to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Tyre city is among the more than 70 towns and villages that Israel has ordered residents to leave.

At least seven people were killed and 17 injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in Hay Ramel in Tyre on Monday. EPA

The Israeli army says it is targeting complexes and combat equipment used by the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, but rights groups say such evacuation orders may be designed to create mass displacement.

“Instructing the residents of entire towns and villages in south Lebanon to evacuate is an overly general warning that is inadequate and raises questions around whether this is intended to create the conditions for mass displacement,” Amnesty International said in a report in early October. It called on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law.

“People who choose to stay in their homes or are unable to leave because members of their household have limited mobility, due to disability, age or other reasons, continue to be protected by international humanitarian law,” the rights group said.

Israel’s concentrated bombardment of the country, particularly in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, has displaced more than 1.4 million people and made about a third of Lebanon uninhabitable.

More than 2,670 people have been killed since the war between Israel and Hezbollah began more than a year ago, running in parallel to Israel's war on Gaza.

About 2,000 of those have died in the last month and a half after Israel escalated its offensive and subsequently launched a ground invasion in the south of Lebanon.

As Israel continued pounding parts of the south on Monday – including the villages of Burgholiyeh, Mansouri and Naqoura – Hezbollah said it targeted a military industries company in northern Israel’s Yodfat with a drone and launched a slew of rockets at the town of Kiryat Shmona, also in Israel’s north.

The strike on the military company was “in response to the attacks and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy”, Hezbollah said.