Israeli army issues evacuation warning for Beirut apartment building

BEIRUT

The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning early Wednesday to residents of an apartment building in the Bashoura neighborhood of the Lebanese capital that it threatened to strike.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on the US social media company X’s platform that residents should evacuate a building marked in red on a shared map and nearby structures.

He warned that those inside the marked building and surrounding areas were located near a site linked to the Hezbollah group that the Israeli army intended to target, urging civilians to immediately leave.

The warning follows Israeli airstrikes early Wednesday on residential areas in central Beirut which killed six people and injured 24 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The strikes targeted apartments in the Zoqaq al-Blat and Basta al-Fawqa neighborhoods while additional attacks were reported in the city’s southern suburbs.

Israel also issued evacuation orders Tuesday for residents of the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and nearby Palestinian refugee camps, warning it would target sites it claimed were used by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began striking Israeli military sites on March 2 in response to continued Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon that took effect in November 2024 and also due to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28.

Israel escalated its attacks the same day with airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern and eastern Lebanon.

It also launched a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon on March 3 after initiating a joint military campaign with the US against Iran on Feb. 28.