Israel strikes Beirut after evacuation warning sparks panic. 8 hours ago. Alice Cuddy,Senior international reporter, Beirutand. David Gritten. Reuters. Israel has launched airstrikes on Beirut, Lebanon, after ordering hundreds of thousands of people to leave the city’s southern suburbs. There were no immediate reports of casualties.. The Israeli military says it is targeting Hezbollah across Lebanon, with Beirut’s south seen as a stronghold for the Iran-backed armed group.. “The Defense Army has launched a wave of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on X.. Following the evacuation orders, traffic jams formed on main roads heading north and south as panicked residents complied with the unprecedented blanket demand covering the area.. Follow live updates. Israel tells people in large parts of southern Lebanon to leave ahead of attacks. Battered and isolated, Hezbollah drags Lebanon into another war. Before the latest strikes, Lebanon said more than 120 people had been killed and nearly 700 wounded by airstrikes since Monday. At least 90,000 are displaced.. The Israeli order came after the military also told all residents of a huge swathe of southern Lebanon near the Israeli border to leave on Wednesday, ahead of an anticipated ground incursion.. Hezbollah has warned Israelis living within 5km of the Lebanese border to leave their homes.. Mohammed al-Khaouzam was among those stuck in traffic trying to flee Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday afternoon.. “We’re coming from Bir Hassan. They [the Israeli military] issued a warning so that’s why we’re leaving,” he told the BBC.. Khaouzam, who is originally from Syria, is heading north with his wife and children. He described Lebanon as his “second country”.. “May God help everyone. May God help all of the Lebanese,” he said out of his car window.. A woman driving north said her children were in Beirut and had called her telling her about the warning to leave the suburbs of Chiyah, Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and Hadath.. She said she was going to stay with them, hoping it would be safe.. “Is there any place to go? What should I do?” she asked.. Food kitchens and shelters in the capital have warned that they cannot support the number of people being displaced.. Reuters. Lebanese authorities have said at least 102 people have been killed in Israeli strikes over the past four days. There have been no reports of fatalities by Israeli authorities.. Israeli aircraft have carried out waves of strikes targeting Hezbollah in Beirut’s southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley since Monday, when the group launched rockets and drones over the border in retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.. It pulled Lebanon into the war between Israel, the US and Iran, only 15 months after a ceasefire deal ended more than a year of full-on fighting betw
