Residents of Lebanon’s Tyre flee after Israel evacuation warning
TYRE, Lebanon – Residents of south Lebanon’s Tyre, including the Christian quarter, fled on June 9, an AFP correspondent said, after Israel’s army for the first time warned the entire city to evacuate ahead of strikes.
The warning came a day after Iran, which insists a halt to the wider Middle East conflict must include a ceasefire in Lebanon, warned it would resume attacks on Israel if it kept striking its neighbour.
Israel has repeatedly struck the coastal city of Tyre since the latest war erupted with Hezbollah, following the Iran-backed group’s rocket fire on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, is the only group in Lebanon that has refused to surrender its arsenal to the state since a civil war ended in 1990.
Until June 9, Tyre’s Christian quarter in the Old City – a small, picturesque area where many displaced people have sought refuge – had been spared Israeli evacuation warnings and strikes targeting the rest of the city in the ongoing war.
“Urgent warning to the residents of the city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter, and the camps and surrounding neighbourhoods,” read a message posted on social media platform X by the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee.
“For your safety, we ask you to immediately evacuate your homes... and move north of the Zahrani River.”
The Zahrani river is around 30km north of Tyre. The Israeli army in May declared all areas south of the river “combat zones”.
Several Palestinian refugee camps are also located near Tyre.
The AFP correspondent saw people fleeing the Christian quarter, which was soon largely empty of residents, and heavy traffic on the road heading north out of the city.
The state-run National News Agency reported an Israeli strike on Tyre’s outskirts before the evacuation warning was issued.
Last week, Israel’s military alleged that Hezbollah members were operating in the Christian quarter and said it would warn people to leave if the group remained there.
An AFP correspondent had said that some people who had been sleeping in cars or tents at the edge of the quarter left for other parts of the city after that warning.
On June 8, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed at least 14 people, including five in a strike near a Red Cross centre in Tyre.
Hezbollah has kept up its attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon. AFP