US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed on Wednesday for a halt to fighting between Israel and militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, but heavy Israeli air strikes on a large historic Lebanese port city showed that there was no respite.
Advertisement
Huge clouds of thick smoke billowed above residential buildings in Tyre, a Unesco-listed port city in south Lebanon, which Israel began bombing roughly three hours after issuing an order online for residents to flee central areas.
Tens of thousands of people have already fled Tyre as Israel steps up its campaign to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, both close allies of its arch Middle East enemy Iran.
The port is typically a bustling hub for the south – with fishermen, tourists and even UN peacekeepers on a break from deployments near the border spending time there by the sea. But Israel’s evacuation orders this week have for the first time encompassed swathes of Tyre, right up to its ancient castle.
“We are better off dying with dignity than living on the street,” said Batoum Zalghout, 25, who fled the latest evacuation zone for another part of the city. She said she had been already displaced with her two children five times as Israel expanded its strikes across Lebanon.
Advertisement