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Israel orders southern Lebanon evacuated as campaign expands / Photo: IBRAHIM AMRO - AFP
Israel orders southern Lebanon evacuated as campaign expands
Israel ordered residents of a vast region of southern Lebanon to leave their homes on Wednesday, as the military expanded its campaign of air strikes and reportedly sent ground troops deeper into the country.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday when the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes over the weekend.
Hezbollah carried out a series of strikes against Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday, claiming to have targeted sites including the Haifa naval base and an aerospace and defence company in central Israel.
Israel has hit Lebanon with air strikes in a number of areas that have killed at least 11 people.
The Israeli military told people living south of Lebanon's Litani river -- an area of hundreds of square kilometres -- to evacuate, warning that the army was "compelled to take military action" against Hezbollah in the area.
"Residents of southern Lebanon -- you must move immediately to areas north of the Litani River," one of the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.
Lebanese state media also reported that the Israeli army had entered the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, about six kilometres from the border, marking its deepest entry since the fighting broke out.
The report comes a day after Israel's military said it was creating a buffer zone inside Lebanon to protect Israeli resident.
When asked by AFP, the Israeli military said it cannot disclose the locations of its troops.
- Hotel strike -
Also on Wednesday, an air strike hit a hotel in Hazmieh, the first reported Israeli attack on the predominantly Christian area in Beirut's suburbs, near the presidential palace and several foreign embassies.
Some rooms were gutted in the strike, while wounded people received treatment in the lobby, AFP images showed.
People fled through debris carrying suitcases past the Comfort Hotel's sign, which had fallen broken to the ground. It was not possible to determine who was targeted in the attack.
The upscale district overlooks the capital's southern suburbs, which Hazmieh resident Lena had initially thought was the target of the strikes.
"I was wrong," the 59-year-old woman told AFP. "Just a stone's throw from my home, a hotel was targeted".
Several people told AFP they had received recorded phone messages telling them to evacuate, a security official told AFP.
- Southern suburbs targeted -
A series of strikes on Wednesday continued to target Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, following an evacuation order from Israel's military.
One of the strikes targeted a building near a major hospital, according to an AFP photographer.
AFP footage showed thick plumes of smoke rising above buildings in the densely populated suburb, where some residents fled when the violence erupted on Monday.
In Aramoun and Saadiyat south of Beirut -- two towns outside of Hezbollah's traditional sphere of influence -- the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded eight others. It cautioned that this was a "preliminary toll".
AFP footage from Aramoun showed damaged cars and rescue workers carrying a wounded person on a stretcher.
Strikes also targeted a four-storey building in the city of Baalbek, in Lebanon's east, far from the border where Hezbollah also has a strong presence.
Five people were killed, 15 were wounded and three remain missing, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.
AFP correspondents saw rescue workers searching through the rubble for survivors.
- Paramedics killed -
Since Monday, Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 people and wounded 335 in Lebanon, the health ministry said before the overnight strikes, which killed at least 11 more people.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said three paramedics were killed and six injured "while recovering people injured by explosions" in Lebanon's southern Tyre district.
"Warring parties must abide by international humanitarian law and protect health workers, facilities and patients," he said on X.
The Israeli military has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until the Lebanese group disarms.
W.Hansen--BlnAP
