Israel orders evacuation of southern Lebanon villages as ground raids begin

Israeli officials have ordered the residents of about 30 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate, in the first concrete demands since the military launched what it called “limited, localised, and targeted ground raids” on Monday against Hezbollah.

Israel began its incursion, which it has called operation “Northern Arrow”, with a barrage of shelling across the blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon, and said it would send in ground troops against targets located in villages close to the boundary that would “pose an immediate threat to communities in northern Israel”.

The ground incursion marks the first time Israeli troops have launched sustained operations in Lebanon since 2006, when the two countries signed a peace deal that ended a 34-day war between Israel and the Shia militia Hezbollah, which dominates large swaths of southern Lebanon.

In a statement, an Israeli military spokesperson told residents of the villages to evacuate to north of the Awali River, nearly 35 miles from the blue line, as the Israel Defense Forces targeted what they called Hezbollah “attack infrastructure” along the frontier between Israel and Lebanon.

“The IDF does not want to harm you, and for your own safety you must evacuate your homes immediately,” Avichay Adraee posted on X, adding that any home used by Hezbollah would be targeted.

It is unclear why Israel asked residents of certain towns in the south, and not neighbouring towns, to leave, nor is it clear why it ordered them to go so far north. “Be careful, you are not allowed to go south. Going south could put your life in danger,” the statement added. “We will let you know when it is safe to return home.”

Burj al-Shemali, a town of about 60,000 people in south Lebanon that was included in Israel’s evacuation order, received calls warning residents to leave, prompting many to flee, Ali Deeb, the mayor, told the Guardian.

“Some went to Tyre, some went to the Awali River. Others stayed, as they didn’t have a place to go or they didn’t have the money to leave,” he said, adding that “everyone” in the town was scared.

As of midday on Tuesday, the scope of the Israeli ground operation remained unclear. Israeli airstrikes against targets in Beirut and shelling in southern Lebanon continued overnight, and Lebanese emergency workers said they had recovered 25 bodies and rescued 13 wounded people since 8pm on Monday.

Local residents have told Reuters that at least 600 people have sought refuge in a monastery in the town of Rmeish as Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon continue.

The Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, met UN officials on Tuesday and said it was “one of the most dangerous stages in [Lebanon’s] history”. He also claimed that “about 1 million of our people have been displaced due to the devastating war waged by Israel on Lebanon”.

Small Israeli commando units had crossed the blue line to participate in the incursion, Israeli officials confirmed. But the army did not appear to have sent tanks or other armoured units across the boundary, and had mobilised just one brigade as part of the operation, making it considerably more limited in scope than the year-old war in Gaza.

Both Israeli and Hezbollah officials said there had not been direct clashes between fighters from the two sides. And it is unclear whether the Israeli government intends to occupy territory in southern Lebanon, depopulate it to create a buffer zone, or conduct raids and then retreat across the blue line, which has marked the frontier since 2006.

Nonetheless, international officials have voiced concerns that Israel could further escalate the offensive, potentially leading to a protracted conflict in southern Lebanon with results similar to the previous large-scale wars of 2006 and 1982.

“We fear a large-scale ground invasion by Israel into Lebanon would only result in greater suffering,” Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, told reporters in Geneva.

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, called for an immediate ceasefire and warned that “none of us want to return to the years in which Israel found itself bogged down in a quagmire in southern Lebanon”.

“None of us want to see a regional war,” Lammy said in remarks broadcast on the BBC. “The price would be huge for the Middle East and it would have a significant effect on the global economy.”

Related: Will Hezbollah survive Israel’s onslaught? – podcast

At the same time, US officials have voiced cautious support for the operation, with the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, agreeing with the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, “on the necessity of dismantling [Hezbollah’s] attack infrastructure along the border”.

In a night-time call between the two sides, Austin “reaffirmed US support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and other Iran-backed terrorist organisations”, a readout of the call said.

A US-French proposal had called for a 21-day ceasefire in order to hold negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah. The US president, Joe Biden, had personally backed calls for a ceasefire as well, and when asked about a potential ground invasion on Monday, he said: “I’m comfortable with them stopping. We should have a ceasefire now.”

Hours later, the IDF launched the incursions into southern Lebanon. Israeli military officials on Tuesday announced a series of restrictions that they said were prompted by safety concerns, after Hezbollah launched rockets at Tel Aviv and other towns and villages in central Israel. Those included closing beaches, limiting private and public gatherings, and closing workplaces and educational institutions that do not have access to bomb shelters.

The Israeli offensive has followed a number of Israeli successes against Hezbollah that appear to have emboldened the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to move against the Iran-backed organisation despite considerable diplomatic efforts to avert an escalation in the war.

The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by an Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday, dealing a heavy blow to the militant group and raising fears that Israel might be preparing for a ground offensive in Lebanon, and that the conflict could spread across the Middle East.

That followed two weeks of strikes, which began with the explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members that killed dozens of people and injured thousands more. Israel has since continued to pound Beirut and has also launched strikes on Yemen and Syria.

Israel has struck targets in Syria and Yemen, saying that it was launching attacks against Iranian-backed militias across the Middle East.