Israel has issued a forced displacement order for Lebanese residents of more than a dozen southern towns, warning them to move northwards urgently ahead of an imminent attack.
The 16 towns and villages include Tebnine, home to south Lebanon's only functioning hospital, the vicinity of which was bombed around half an hour after the displacement order.
Israel also attacked Chaqra, Khirbet Selm and Kounine - among the areas subject to the displacement order.
"You are required to evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the specified area towards the Sidon District," the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on X.
The Israeli military said the action was necessary due to Hezbollah's violation of a ceasefire agreement with Israel. No evidence was given to support the claims, which mirror similar mass displacement orders that have rendered much of Lebanon inaccessible.
On Sunday, the Israeli military issued a displacement order for seven towns just north of the Litani River.
Despite a three-week extension to the ceasefire last week, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to launch attacks at each other.
Israel carried out a wave of attacks on south Lebanon on Tuesday, with Lebanon's National News Agency saying it used white phosphorus shells near the town of Barasheet.
Much of Hezbollah's attacks are now focused on Israeli positions inside occupied south Lebanon, where Israel has established its “yellow line” in what amounts to a buffer zone.
None of the villages evicted on Tuesday are inside this zone.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Israel does not wish to “indefinitely maintain a buffer zone” in Lebanon. “Israel has no long-term territorial claims in Lebanon,” he told Fox News.
The warring parties resumed fighting on March 2 when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel. The group said it was responding to the killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Israeli ceasefire breaches.
Israel retaliated with force described as “disproportionate” by western officials and civilians in Lebanon have paid the heaviest price. At least 2,500 people, including more than 170 children, have been killed since, Lebanese authorities estimate.
The Israeli military began carrying out air strikes in eastern Lebanon on Monday, expanding the scope of its bombing campaign during the ceasefire.
Attacks on Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley were the first in the area since the US-brokered ceasefire came into force on April 16, significantly reducing the pace of attacks without stopping the exchanges of fire.
