Israel declares "combat zone" all of southern Lebanon and orders the evacuation of the entire population

BarcelonaIsrael is demonstrating with actions that the ceasefire in Lebanon, supposedly in effect, has no real value. On Monday, the Hebrew army initiated a strong escalation of bombings, and two days later it has made it clear that it does not intend to ease up. This Wednesday, the Arabic spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, urged all residents of southern Lebanon to forcibly relocate north of the Zahrani River, about 40 kilometers from the border.

The Israel Defense Forces have warned that, from now on, this entire area, where about 800,000 people lived before the war, is considered a "combat zone." "We ask the residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate north of the Zahrani River and stay away from any Hezbollah infrastructure," Adraee said in a video posted on X, in which he stated that the Israeli army is preparing to act "with great force" against the Shiite militia.

This message comes the day after ordering the forced evacuation of all residents of Nabatieh, one of the main cities in the south of the country, and hours after also urging the displacement of residents from Tyre and all surrounding Palestinian camps, villages, and neighborhoods. According to the Lebanese media L'Orient-Le Jour,, only two coastal districts, one predominantly Christian and the other Muslim, have been excluded from the evacuation order map.

According to media outlets such as Al-Jazeera and AFP, during the afternoon of this Wednesday, the Israeli army launched three airstrikes, one of which targeted the Rashidieh refugee camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Tyre and the second largest in all of Lebanon. So far, at least two deaths and fifteen injuries have been reported from a bombing of a residential building in El-Buss, near Tyre.

On the other hand, the Lebanese army has reported that a soldier died in an Israeli attack on the Kfar Roman-Khardali road, in southern Lebanon. According to the country's Ministry of Health, the death toll since the war began on March 2 has risen to 3,269 people, and at least 9,840 injuries have also been registered.

The attacks this Wednesday demonstrate, therefore, that the Hebrew forces are no longer limiting themselves to bombing border villages or military positions, but that the war has shifted to densely populated urban centers.