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Israeli strikes kill 11 near Tyre after evacuation warning for southern Lebanese city
TYRE, June 10 — Israeli airstrikes on the historic city of Tyre in southern Lebanon and surrounding areas killed 11 people yesterday amid an Israeli military warning for the entire city to evacuate.
Israel’s army said its forces killed a gunman who had managed to infiltrate Israeli territory from Lebanon and opened fire on its troops.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported raids on more than a dozen other locations across the country’s south, as Israel pressed on with its war against the militant group Hezbollah.
An Israeli strike near Tyre killed three people in the southern Lebanese city, the health ministry said, taking the death toll up to 11 in the region.
The strike also wounded nine people, including two women, the ministry added, further confirming an earlier toll of eight dead.
The action came despite a warning the day before from Iran that it would resume attacking Israel if it continued striking its neighbour.
Tehran insists that Lebanon must be part of any deal to end the wider Middle East war, which Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into by attacking Israel in support of its backer Iran.
Hezbollah urged Lebanese authorities to mend their relationship with the group’s backer Iran and benefit from Tehran’s support, days after Iran struck Israel in response to bombardment on south Beirut.
Last week Lebanon’s president and prime minister issued pointed calls for Tehran to stop interfering in their country’s affairs, after Hezbollah rejected a conditional ceasefire with Israel.
Residents fleeing
An AFP correspondent saw residents of Tyre, including from the Christian quarter, fleeing and heavy traffic heading north after the Israeli warning.
Another correspondent in the coastal city of Sidon, further north, saw displaced people arriving from Tyre, some with belongings hastily strapped to the roofs of their cars.
Israel has repeatedly struck the city of Tyre since the latest war erupted with Hezbollah, following the militants’ rocket fire at Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
But until yesterday, Tyre’s Christian quarter in the Old City—a small, picturesque area where displaced people had sought refuge—had been spared Israeli evacuation warnings targeting the rest of the city in the ongoing war.
“Urgent warning to the residents of the city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter, and the camps and surrounding neighbourhoods,” the Israeli army warning on X read, referring to several Palestinian refugee camps in the area.
“For your safety, we ask you to immediately evacuate your homes... and move north of the Zahrani River.”
“The neighbourhood is empty, some people are packing their belongings to leave, and others have already left... and only a few people remain,” municipal council member Walid al-Tawil said.
Most people left for Sidon or Beirut, he added.
The Zahrani River is around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Tyre. The Israeli army last month declared all areas south of the river “combat zones”.
Rising toll
The NNA reported an Israeli strike on Tyre’s outskirts before the evacuation notice was issued, and further strikes on the city after the warning.
The health ministry earlier said the pre-warning strike killed at least eight people and wounded 32 others, with rescuers still searching rubble for survivors.
Hezbollah, the only Lebanese group that refused to surrender its arsenal after a civil war ended in 1990, has also kept up its attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon.
Last week, Israel’s military alleged that Hezbollah members were operating in Tyre’s Christian quarter and said it would warn people to leave if the group remained there.
An AFP correspondent said some people who had been sleeping in cars or tents at the edge of the quarter left for other parts of the city after that warning.
Lebanese authorities say Israeli attacks since March have killed 3,666 people and displaced more than one million others.
On the Israeli side, 29 soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in Lebanon, according to the army.
Neither side has respected a ceasefire first announced in mid-April. — AFP
