A looming humanitarian catastrophe confronts Lebanon as Israeli military operations have driven an estimated 600 000 to 800 000 residents from Beirut's southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, following an extraordinary mass evacuation order. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam cautioned foreign ambassadors that the political and humanitarian fallout from the displacement "could be unprecedented".
By Friday morning, the once-bustling neighbourhood lay in ruins — streets entirely emptied of life, save for a lone bulldozer clearing wreckage. Smoke billowed from flattened structures while adjacent buildings bore the scars of severe blast damage. The Lebanese health ministry confirmed that 123 people had been killed in strikes carried out since Monday.
The Israeli military disclosed it had executed 26 waves of aerial assaults on the area over four days, including overnight raids on Thursday targeting what it described as "command centres and multi-storey structures" housing militant operations. Among the targets were an executive council command facility and a storage site for unmanned aerial vehicles allegedly used by Hezbollah in attacks against Israel.
Hostilities escalated after the Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on Monday, claiming retaliation for the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei during a joint US-Israeli strike on Tehran the previous Saturday. Israel responded with sustained bombing campaigns across Lebanon and deployed ground forces into the country's south, ordering evacuations spanning hundreds of square kilometres.
Ground operations intensified as Israel's army chief of staff announced on Thursday evening that troops already positioned in southern Lebanon had been instructed to expand their territorial control. Overnight airstrikes pounded dozens of villages across southern and eastern Lebanon without pause.
Hezbollah declared fresh strikes against northern Israel on Friday, including an attack on a naval installation in Haifa the previous day. The group also reported engaging a convoy of Israeli vehicles advancing on the border town of Khiam, roughly 6km from the frontier, claiming to have driven them back.
