Israel strikes south Lebanon city of Tyre

Israel launched fresh strikes Monday on Tyre, Lebanese state media said, after the Israeli military told swathes of the southern city to evacuate and following an earlier raid that killed seven people.

The National News Agency (NNA) reported “a series of strikes” on the ancient coastal city, beginning with a raid on a residential apartment.

An AFP video journalist reported thick clouds of smoke covering parts of Tyre, including rising from a building along the seafront.

The Israeli army had earlier told residents in parts of central Tyre to leave immediately, warning it would attack Hezbollah targets there.

“Hezbollah’s activities force the (Israeli military) to act against it forcefully,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X, urging residents to “head north.”

An accompanying map showed large swathes of the city marked in red, including an area abutting a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The union of Tyre municipalities received a phone call in Arabic, apparently from the Israeli military, urging residents to evacuate several streets in the area, a municipal source told AFP.

The NNA said the union instructed the civil defense and emergency personnel to use loudspeakers to urge residents to leave, “which created a state of panic.”

The fresh strikes came after a raid early on Monday in the center of the city killed seven people and wounded 17 others, according to a health ministry statement.

The AFP video journalist saw emergency personnel rush a survivor to an ambulance on a stretcher, while other rescuers worked to put out a fire at the site, where a residential apartment block had collapsed.

Israel last month escalated air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds and sent ground forces into Lebanon, following a year of cross-border exchanges of fire with the Iran-backed group over the Gaza war.

Tyre was subjected to heavy Israeli strikes last week, leaving parts of the center in ruins.