Israel urges civilians in Lebanon to evacuate ahead of ‘extensive strikes’ on Hezbollah

The Israeli military on Monday morning warned Lebanese civilians to evacuate from villages where Hezbollah was storing weapons, bringing Israel’s 11-month conflict with the militia closer to all-out war after a week of escalation.

The announcement from Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, came shortly after Israel began what it said was a new round of “extensive strikes” across Lebanon — and suggested that Israel was preparing for another round of attacks.

In a statement published online, Hagari said: “We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purpose, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety.”

The military published a map showing 17 villages and towns in southern Lebanon, but it did not say which of them would be targeted.

The evacuation order was Israel’s latest attempt to break Hezbollah, following clandestine operations last week that destroyed parts of the militia’s communications networks, as well as a rare strike on Beirut on Friday that destroyed a building where senior Hezbollah commanders were holding a meeting.

The new strikes Monday reflected the failure of those attacks to force Hezbollah to back down, at least for the time being.

Hezbollah enacted its own escalation over the weekend, firing a barrage of missiles Sunday morning that hit areas roughly 30 miles south of the Lebanese border with Israel, its deepest strikes since the start of the war in October.

Hezbollah began firing at Israeli troops shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, attempting to show support for its Palestinian ally without starting its own all-out conflict. Israel responded with missiles and artillery fire, leading to regular exchanges of missiles and rockets, the evacuation of roughly 150,000 people on either side of the border, and widespread damage in the border areas.

Hezbollah has avoided turning the conflict into a no-holds-barred ground war, but it says it will not stop firing rockets until a cease-fire is reached in the Gaza Strip. As a truce there is now a distant prospect, Israel is attempting more brazen attacks in order to force the group into disconnecting its fight from that of Hamas.

But, so far, Hezbollah has not backed down, with its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, pledging in a speech Thursday to continue fighting while the war in Gaza continues.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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