Israel has carried out massive strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, hours after ordering the entire population of the area—over 500,000 people—to evacuate. The Israel Defense Forces warned residents to 'save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,' prompting a panicked exodus from the Lebanese capital before warplanes attacked what it claimed were Hezbollah targets. The evacuation zone included several hospitals and government ministries.
The strikes mark a significant escalation in Israel's offensive in Lebanon, which began after Hezbollah fired missiles and drones into Israel on Monday. Footage on Thursday evening showed smoke over the Dahiya neighbourhood. Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the strikes would make the suburb 'look like Khan Younis,' a largely destroyed area of southern Gaza.
On the same day, Iran launched retaliatory airstrikes against Israel and US bases across the region. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth promised further escalation, saying, 'If you think you’ve seen something, just wait.' At the White House, Donald Trump said members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps would be given immunity if they surrendered, but otherwise faced 'guaranteed death.' He also claimed he should be involved in choosing Iran's next supreme leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike.
Iran expanded its campaign, firing more ballistic missiles towards Israel and striking an airport in Azerbaijan, raising fears the conflict—now affecting 14 countries—could spread further. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the decision to assassinate Khamenei was made in November, predating the breakdown in nuclear negotiations that Trump claimed led to the US preemptive strike. Katz also said Khamenei's successors would be 'unequivocal targets for elimination.'
Thursday's evacuation order for southern Beirut was unprecedented in scale, even compared to the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war. Traffic came to a standstill, with thousands walking, women pushing strollers through bumper-to-bumper traffic, and families appealing for help to evacuate elderly relatives. The Israeli military provided preapproved routes north and east, a tactic reminiscent of Gaza evacuation orders.
At least 102 people have been killed and 638 injured in Lebanon by Israeli airstrikes, according to Lebanon's health ministry. The war, now in its sixth day, has also killed at least 1,230 people in Iran and about a dozen in Israel, along with six US soldiers.
