Beirut: Thousands of families have fled their homes in Lebanon after Israeli forces warned them of a wave of bombing to target Hezbollah groups, in another escalation of the wider war against Iran.
The alert spread panic through the Dahiyeh area of southern Beirut as people moved north to escape the attacks, choking highways and overloading shelters as people searched for places to stay.
Air strikes were heard over Beirut hours later and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the conflict would make the southern parts of the city look like another Gaza Strip.
The war on Iran spread into Lebanon on Monday when Hezbollah members launched rocket and drone attacks on Israel in a show of support for the Iranian regime, and then continued the attacks on Tuesday.
The Israel Defence Forces sent troops into Lebanon on Tuesday to try to assert control of the border, while also launching air strikes.
The mass evacuation on Thursday and subsequent air strikes have sharply increased the conflict amid political tensions in Lebanon over Hezbollah and growing fears of a long war.
Families sought safety in Martyrs’ Square – in the historic centre of Beirut – without knowing if or when they could return to their homes, most of them resigned to sleeping in the square.
A group of Syrian women sat with their children near the Al-Amin mosque after walking from the Dahiyeh area.
“It took four or five hours to walk here because of the little children,” said Najah, 27, a mother of five, when this masthead spoke to people in the square.
Another member of the group, Hajar, 25, said they were neighbours who walked together as soon as they heard the Israeli alert and found there was no transport available.
While Dahiyeh is a largely Shiite area, those fleeing include Sunni Muslims such as Rizk Hamza, 42, a mechanic who was in Martyrs’ Square with his wife and four children.
“There’s no difference between what’s happening to us and what happened in Gaza,” he told this masthead.
“This is the result of savage attacks, which were done in Gaza and are now done here.”
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued the warning at 2.50pm on Thursday (11.50pm, AEDT) to tell people to leave the area, with messages on social media giving people maps to show them where to move north.
“Save your lives, evacuate your homes immediately,” he posted on X.
An Israeli strike was reported on social media at 9.16pm (Beirut time) and this was followed by a series of explosions in the southern part of the city over the subsequent hours.
Motrich, the finance minister and a far-right member of the Israeli government, issued a statement on video that spoke of destroying the Dahiyeh area so that it looked like Khan Younis, a part of Gaza where buildings have been reduced to rubble.
The Hezbollah attacks on Israel caught some of its own allies by surprise and deepened concerns in Lebanon about the group’s tactics and the threat to the civilian population when Israel responds.
Reuters reported this week that the Hezbollah attacks had strained the group’s ties with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite politician who has been aligned with the group for many years.
Berri felt he had been “fooled” by Hezbollah because he had been led to expect it would not attack, Reuters reported, citing four political figures who spoke on condition they were not named.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Monday the government would ban Hezbollah’s military activities because of the attacks, but the group has supporters within the government who reject this move.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
