Israel issues new evacuation call for south Lebanon villages

The Israeli military has told residents of several villages in south Lebanon to leave immediately, warning that it would strike Hezbollah targets there. Follow for updates.

The Israeli military has told residents of several villages in south Lebanon to leave immediately, warning that it would strike Hezbollah targets there.

“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali River,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that included names of more than a dozen villages in south Lebanon.

The call follows an admission by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant that “painful concessions” were needed to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.

He said military operations alone could not achieve the country’s war goals.

“Not all objectives can be achieved through military operations alone … to realise our moral duty to bring our hostages home, we will have to make painful concessions,” said Gallant in a speech marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year.

Israel bombarded Hezbollah and Hamas targets in Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, with no respite in the conflict one day after its strikes on Iran raised fears of a broader war.

A man inspects the debris and damage at the site of overnight Israeli air strikes that targeted Beirut's southern suburb of Hadath on October 27. Picture: AFP

The Israeli military said it had killed 70 Hezbollah fighters and struck 120 targets in southern Lebanon and carried out “precision strikes” on weapons factories and storage facilities in the Iran-backed group’s southern Beirut stronghold over the past day.

In Gaza, it said, it had eliminated “40 terrorists over the past day”.

Correspondents and witnesses in Gaza confirmed that the north of the Palestinian territory had been hit.

The ongoing fighting came as Israel marked the first anniversary under the Hebrew calendar of Hamas’s bloody cross-border attack on October 7 last year.

Following Saturday’s Israeli air strikes, which killed at least four soldiers, Iran said it had a “duty” to respond, but its military said it was prioritising a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also seemed to indicate that Israel was done striking Iran, saying the attack on Saturday was “precise and powerful, achieving all of its objectives”.

In Gaza, which UN human rights chief Volker Turk says is facing its “darkest hour”, Israeli forces are again carrying out a ground and air campaign in the north that they say aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

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Originally published as Israel issues new evacuation call for south Lebanon villages