5 hours Ago
Beirut, Sept. 28: When she first heard about the evacuation warnings Israel was sending to residents of Lebanon, Aline Naser’s thoughts immediately turned to Gaza. For the past year, the 26-year-old Beirut resident has been following with horror the reports about besieged Palestinians in the Gaza Strip ordered to move from one place to the other, fleeing to “humanitarian zones” only to be bombed and ordered to leave again.
The Israeli calls for Lebanese citizens to evacuate ahead of a widening air campaign, delivered via mobile phone alerts, calls and leaflets this week, seemed chillingly familiar. “It’s definitely something on the back of my mind, and we don’t really know where exactly is safe,” she said. Almost a year after the start of its war in Gaza, Israel has turned its focus on Lebanon, significantly ratcheting up its campaign against its archenemy Hezbollah.
Among many in Lebanon, there is fear that Israel’s military operations in Lebanon would follow the same Gaza playbook: Evacuation orders, mass displacement and overwhelming airstrikes. Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah weapons sites and militants. There are key differences between Gaza and Lebanon and how Israel has so far conducted its operations, which it says aim to push back Hezbollah from the border so that tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah's rocket attacks can return to their homes.
Although it has said it is preparing for a possible ground operation, Israel has so far not sent troops into Lebanon. Still, there are fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza, including the use of overwhelming and what rights groups and the United Nations have described as disproportionate force, would be repeated in Lebanon. Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues.
On Monday, Israel struck 1,600 targets across Lebanon, killing 492 people and wounding 1,645, and causing a massive wave of displacement as thousands fled from south Lebanon north. It was a staggering one-day toll that shocked a nation used to war. It was by far the deadliest barrage since the monthlong 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, when an estimated 1,000 people in Lebanon were killed.
Throughout the day, the Israeli military sent warnings to residents to immediately evacuate in anticipation of the strikes and to stay away from places where Hezbollah stores weapons — something most would have no way of knowing. “Please get out of harm’s way now,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded message. “Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.
” Israel’s evacuation orders have been a central part of its military campaign in Gaza for the past year. In the first week after launching war, Israel ordered 1.1 million civilians in the Gaza Strip to relocate from the north to the south, sowing confusion and fear in the overcrowded enclave.
Since then, the Israeli military has issued dozens of evacuation orders calling on Palestinians to evacuate to Israeli-designated "humanitarian zones.” Israeli officials say they are targeting Hamas militants who have embedded themselves among the population. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza.
The Health Ministry, part of the territory’s Hamas government, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says that just over half the dead have been women and children.” With Gaza's borders sealed, residents of the crammed territory are trapped with nowhere to go, whereas in Lebanon, those fleeing Israeli strikes have been able to move to safer areas. Thousands have fled to neighboring Syria, while others have left through the country’s airport.
(AP).
