Israel issues evacuation warnings in Lebanon

BEIRUT: Israel Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the public must be calm after the military launched its most widespread wave of air strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah, targeting Lebanon’s south, eastern Bekaa valley and northern region near Syria.

“We are deepening our attacks in Lebanon, the actions will continue until we achieve our goal to return the northern residents safely to their homes,” Gallant said in a video published by his office on Monday. “These are days in which the Israeli public will have to show composure.”

Earlier, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said that air strikes on houses in Lebanon, in which “Hezbollah hid weapons” are imminent.

Two asteroids approaching earth, warns NASA

Residents of southern Lebanon received calls from a Lebanese number ordering them to immediately distance themselves 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) from any post used by Hezbollah, a Reuters reporter in the south, who received the call, said.

Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makary said his ministry had received a similar call ordering the building to evacuate, but said the ministry would do no such thing. “This is a psychological war,” Makary told Reuters.

In a televised statement earlier, the Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari issued a similar warning and said it was being “distributed in Arabic on all networks and platforms in Lebanon.”

Sri Lanka’s new president Dissanayake promises change

Asked by reporters about a possible Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, Hagari said “we will do whatever is needed” in order to return evacuated residents of northern Israel to their homes safely, a war priority for the Israeli government.

The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon had “seen an intensification of bombardments throughout the area of operations, close to the Blue Line but also deeper south,” its spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Reuters, referring to the line demarcating the Lebanese-Israeli border.

“Hezbollah is endangering you. Endangering you and your families,” Hagari said.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the warnings.