By Zein Khalil
JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army on Saturday ordered the residents of 23 villages in southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate their homes.
In a statement on X, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee listed the areas, including Ayta ash Shab, Ramieh, Yater, Qaouzah, Bayt Lif, Hanine, Rachaf, Aynata, Qlaileh, Al-Haush, Nabaa, Touline, Al-Tamriya, Khiam, Al-Khirbah, Kfarhamam.
The list also included Louaizeh, Jisr Abu Zebla, Jabal Al-Adas, Dahr Barriet Jaber, Kafra, Ramadiyeh, and Zibqine.
Adraee claimed that “Hezbollah's activities in the region were forcing the Israeli army to take necessary actions.”
Warning residents to evacuate their homes “immediately,” he instructed residents to move north of the Awali River and prohibited any movement southward.
Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,411 people, injuring over 3,970 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.
The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed nearly 42,200 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara