‘You should leave’: Tensions high as Lebanon faces frightening prospect of possible ground assault
The Israeli airstrikes have left people in the south of Lebanon feeling there are no safe places around here now.
Dozens more were killed in another intense day of Israeli bombing including more children – with whole families missing and unaccounted for.
Follow latest: Israel preparing ‘for possible ground invasion’
One Lebanese army general told us: “This area is not safe now. You should leave. We are evacuating everyone from here.”
He was with a group of soldiers in an army Humvee and said his men had recently evacuated residents from the Christian town of Aalma El Chaeb further south near the border.
This was an area we had visited previously with UN peacekeepers and where the residents insisted Hezbollah remained outside the town.
It was notable for being remarkably unaffected despite the devastation evident in all the surrounding villages hugging the border.
The situation is now considered too risky even for those residents who’d very publicly and successfully rejected any Hezbollah involvement or interaction.
As we drove around the south, we saw craters on the side of the main coastal highway linking the area to the capital Beirut.
A crater on the side of a road after an Israeli airstrike
Destruction from an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Tyre
There were two upturned cars which had ended up on the other side of the road. On one street, rows of shops and businesses appeared to have been blasted.
There were what looked like a woman’s individual ID photographs scattered on the ground, along with clothing and a baby’s bib. A small fish tank in one of the shops still had its inhabitants swimming around – but very little else looked intact.
A residential apartment on the outskirts of Tyre appeared to have been freshly hit when we turned up, with smoke wafting out from the rubble and a fire still burning inside.
A woman’s photo was among the items on the ground
Buildings destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Tyre
A fire truck pulled up while we were there and moments later, we were hastily moved on by Hezbollah supporters who appeared on motorbikes.
“Leave the area,” one said, saying it was unsafe because of escaping gas. We spotted two lone women dragging suitcases behind them as they made their way along the road out of the area.
Many of the schools and universities have been turned into temporary shelters and we were at the Sidon Faculty of Law as several truck-loads of provisions were ferried into a crowd of anxious and angry displaced people.
Edouard Beigbeder from UNICEF told us: “They are traumatised. They’ve lost their houses. They’ve seen their houses being burnt.
“They’ve lost their income. They’ve lost many things.”
Edouard Beigbeder from UNICEF speaks to Sky News
Hector Hajjar, the Lebanese minister of social affairs who was visiting the shelter, brushed aside our attempt to ask him about the situation and his armed bodyguard tried to block the path of one fraught woman who heckled him as he walked away.
“If you’re going to come here, at least listen to us,” she plaintively shouted after him. The minister turned briefly to talk to her but whatever he said failed to pacify her.
“They’re not listening to us,” she told us. “Everyone’s just looking after themselves… we don’t have mattresses, covers or pillows… and our children are sleeping on the ground.”
Several truck-loads of provisions were brought in
Our presence at the shelter seems to rile many of those displaced. It’s not clear whether it’s because we are clearly Western, because we are media, or because they are simply just very highly stressed. Maybe all three. Tensions are high and tempers frayed.
One young mother holding a toddler on her hip told us she’d fled the bombing further south with her five children and moved north to Sidon just hours earlier.
“There’s a lot of destruction,” she said of the home she’d just left. “People died, houses got destroyed, the roads were blocked.”
She added: “There’s no more bread, no more food, no more water.”
A displaced man speaking after Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon
A young man standing next to her called Yousuf told us it wasn’t just Hezbollah fighters or supporters being targeted.
“They’re not differentiating between fighters and civilians… this aggression is intensely hitting civilian areas – they’re not differentiating at all,” he said.
As another day of Israeli bombing slipped into night, we could hear from our accommodation the regular booms of missiles hitting targets.
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Hezbollah says it will not back down and it claimed it had fired a ballistic missile for the first time at intelligence headquarters near Tel Aviv. The missile was intercepted.
We’ve heard a few Hezbollah rockets being fired over the past few days but there seems to be a marked drop in their salvoes around where we are, anyway.
The Israeli forces and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have insisted they are pressing on and the army chief has said these strikes are preparations for a possible ground assault.
Rhetoric or not, that’s a frightening prospect for the Lebanese people caught up in the thick of this bombardment.
Alex Crawford is reporting with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Lebanon producers Jihad Jineid and Sami Zein
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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