Israel orders residents of Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, to evacuate

The Israeli military warned residents of the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon to evacuate on Wednesday, appearing to deepen its campaign against Hezbollah strongholds outside the south of the country.

Baalbek, which had a population of about 80,000 before Israel intensified its attacks on the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah this month, is an important urban center in the Bekaa Valley and is famous for its towering Roman ruins. It is also known as a city controlled by Hezbollah.

But unlike other places where the group enjoys support, the city of Baalbek has largely escaped Israeli bombing. In a sign that the Israeli campaign against Hezbollah may be expanding, Baalbek was one of two urban areas targeted by Israel in recent days after being largely spared the brunt of the war.

The warnings came amid renewed diplomatic efforts to reach a truce, according to three officials familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

No agreement has been reached, but Israel is seeking an arrangement that would give Hezbollah several weeks to withdraw its forces from the Israeli-Lebanese border, allowing the official Lebanese army — which Hezbollah has marginalized in southern Lebanon for the past two decades — to fill the void, according to two Of the officials.

The two officials said Israel also wants to guarantee its right to invade Lebanon if Hezbollah does not withdraw quickly enough.

In a statement Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, posted online on Wednesday a map showing Baalbek and two nearby towns, Ein Burdai and Doris, as part of a danger zone marked in red, with three evacuation routes allowed by the IDF. .

“The IDF will act forcefully against Hezbollah’s interests inside your cities and villages and does not intend to harm you,” Mr. Adraee said. “For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move outside the city and villages.”

Lebanese officials said the evacuation warning came two days after at least 60 people were killed in Israeli air strikes in the Bekaa region, which includes the city and remote rural areas. The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that at least 58 others were injured in the attacks.

Farmland and villages surrounding the city of Baalbek have been hit by air strikes several times in recent weeks, leaving many small towns largely deserted. Ibrahim Bayan, deputy mayor of Baalbek, said earlier this month that about two-thirds of residents of the city itself had left their homes out of fear.

A statement said that as people in Baalbek received evacuation warnings via text message late Wednesday morning, a feeling of panic dominated the city’s streets.

“People are panicking,” Mr. Bayan said. “They are running and bumping into each other, like headless chickens. They have no idea what to do, where to go.”

He added that within minutes, the roads were filled with residents who threw their valuables into plastic bags, locked their homes and pulled down the metal grilles on the doors of their shops. As people crammed into cars, they shouted among themselves to determine the safest way to leave the city.

Others chose to stay in the city, unsure of where to go or how to get there.

Some said that Baalbek is one of the most backward areas in Lebanon, and that many residents do not have the means to flee.

“Gas stations are closed, but even if they were open, people do not have money to fill their car tanks,” said Mahmoud Zikry, a resident of Baalbek who stayed in his home. “There are no minibuses or taxis – even if they were available, no one would be able to rent them.”

The warning issued by the Israeli army included a village on the southern outskirts of Baalbek that connects the city to the main highway in the region, cutting off the usual route for residents trying to leave the valley.

Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, gave his first televised speech on Wednesday afternoon, a day after he was appointed to the position. He replaced Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s longtime leader, who was assassinated by Israel last month.

In the speech, delivered as the group fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, Mr. Qassem lavished effusive praise on his predecessor and said Hezbollah “will continue to implement the war strategy it has developed.”

Fighting continued between Israeli forces and Hezbollah elsewhere in Lebanon. The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had bombed more than 100 sites across the country in the past 24 hours, including a rocket launch site used in a deadly raid on the Israeli town of Maalot-Tarshiha on Tuesday. It also said it had killed a large number of Hezbollah fighters in what it called “limited, local and targeted raids.”

Mr. Adraee He said One of the fighters killed by Israeli forces was Mustafa Ahmed Shehadeh, described as a prominent commander in the group’s elite Radwan Force. Hezbollah did not comment on this allegation.

Mr. Adraee said Mr. Shehadeh was killed in an airstrike in Nabatieh, a large southern town. The Army also released it on Wednesday Evacuation warnings of eight small towns in the area surrounding Nabatieh, urging their residents to move north of the Awali River.

On Tuesday evening, an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 people in the coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, according to a security source. a report According to the country’s national news agency. She added that the attack led to the injury of at least 36 others. Until recently, attacks on Sidon, one of Lebanon’s largest cities, and its surrounding areas were rare.

Hezbollah said its forces clashed with Israeli forces in recent days near the border town of Kafr Kila and the mountain town of Khiam, known in Lebanon as the former site of a concentration camp run by Israel’s allies during its two-decade occupation. From southern Lebanon.

The camp was turned into a museum by the Lebanese government after Israel’s withdrawal in 2000, although it was later destroyed in an Israeli air strike during the 2006 war in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s claims could not be independently verified. National News Agency I mentioned And that Israeli soldiers near the tents “were trying to infiltrate the town under heavy fire” on Wednesday, and that the Israeli Air Force launched several raids on the area.

Yacoub Al-Rubaie, Howaida Saad, Rawan Sheikh Ahmed and Patrick Kingsley Contributed to reports.