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South Lebanon residents receive calls to move away from Hezbollah sites
Residents of southern Lebanon are receiving phone calls from a Lebanese number ordering them to immediately move away from any post used by Hezbollah, Reuters is reporting.
In a televised statement earlier, an Israeli military spokesperson issued a similar warning and said it was being “distributed in Arabic on all networks and platforms in Lebanon”.
The Israeli army has been telling Lebanese civilians to “move away” from Hezbollah sites it plans to target and as the Israeli military said it will carry out more “extensive and precise” strikes against Hezbollah. It was the first such warning issued to Lebanese people by Israel’s military since the war in Gaza erupted nearly a year ago.
Israeli warnings are psychological warfare
Israeli warnings are a classic example of psychological warfare that is carried out in other areas as well. We’ve seen similar things in Gaza and the West Bank. Now we’re seeing it in Lebanon.
They issue these warnings, which are really intended to imply to civilians that their leaders, people fighting on their side, and people surrounding them are using them as human shields.
This is an accusation that the Israeli army has put up against Hamas in the past, and against armed groups in the West Bank. It is part and parcel of what Israel does. It masks its own aggression, tactics and military prowess in this cocoon of the idea that the other side is using the population that Israel is killing as human shields, whether that is true or not.
And Israel has shown no differentiation in its own military acts in the past anytime it’s come across a civilian population.
People in Beirut receiving calls for evacuation
People in Beirut are also receiving text messages, purportedly from the Israeli army, asking them to evacuate their locations quickly, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) is reporting.
Minister of Information Ziad Makary received a call with a voicemail left on his phone, urging the building be evacuated, the agency said. On Saturday, an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut killed 45 people, including a senior Hezbollah commander, and wounded 66.
Level of anxiety in Beirut at all-time high
People in the Lebanese capital woke up to the news of Israel’s unprecedented level of attack on the southern and eastern parts of the country. People here have relatives, family and friends living in the south.
According to analysts I spoke to, about a quarter of the population lives in the southern parts. It is home to roughly 800,000 people.
Now about 100,000 of those people have been relocated, but they’re still in southern Lebanon. There are a lot of phone calls, text messages and videos being sent from residents in the south. Their relatives and friends here in the capital are extremely concerned.
They are anxious about not only what is happening in the south, but about how close they are to actually being in a full-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.
This is the first time that they have felt this level of anxiety in almost a year because of everything that has happened and the continuing level of strikes from Israel as well as Hezbollah’s response. Hezbollah has shown no sign of backing down.
Lebanon death toll rises to 182
The death toll in Israeli attacks across Lebanon today has risen to 182, the Health Ministry has announced.
Another 727 people were wounded in the attacks.
