The Israeli Army declared the entire southern Lebanon up to the Zahrani River a combat zone, a strip that covers approximately 18% of Lebanese territory and where more than 800,000 people lived before the start of the conflict. The measure, accompanied by an order for mass evacuation, came a few hours after the Israeli forces began bombing Tyre, a port city of about 200,000 inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast of the south of the country.
The Israeli military spokesman in Arabic, Avichay Adraee, posted the notice on the social network X: “We advise residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of the Zahrani River, as all areas south of the river are considered a combat zone. The IDF has no intention of harming the civilian population”. The warning was the second mass evacuation order of the day; the first had been directed to Tyre and its surroundings two hours before the bombings began on the city. According to a statement from the Israeli Army, the attacks on Tyre focused on “Hezbollah command centers in the area” and extended to the Bekaa Valley and other points in the south. The military text specified that “since the beginning of the week” Israeli forces had attacked “approximately 550 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.” The Lebanese National News Agency (ANN) reported that two people died and one was injured in the bombings on the Deir Amas area, in the municipality of Tyre.Wednesday’s escalation was announced the day before by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared that a large ground force was advancing towards southern Lebanon to occupy “strategic areas” and consolidate a “security zone”. The ANN also reported that residents of Tyre had received phone calls from Israel urging them to leave their homes before the official announcement.
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The new line set by Israel, the Zahrani River, runs approximately 40 kilometers north of the Israeli-Lebanese border. Until this week, the Israeli military presence had extended to the Litani River, between 10 and 15 kilometers further south. This is not the first time that Israel has demanded this evacuation: on March 12, it issued an identical order demanding that civilians withdraw beyond the Zahrani.
The background to the escalation is the progressive collapse of the ceasefire mediated by the United States, which came into effect on April 16 and was extended for three weeks on April 23, as announced by President Donald Trump. The agreement, negotiated with the Lebanese Government as an interlocutor with Hezbollah —the Shiite terrorist group backed by Iran—, granted Israel the right to respond to “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”. Since its entry into force, the violations were constant, and the head of the Israeli General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, went so far as to declare that “there is no ceasefire”.
