Israeli Strikes Kill Six Civilians Near Tyre After Zahrani River Declared Combat Zones

Israel ordered residents to evacuate areas south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River after the Israeli military declared the entire region a “combat zones,” including Tyre and its refugee camps, as it said it would act “with great force” against Hezbollah.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said all areas south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River were considered “combat zones” and urged residents to head north, while Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes that killed three people at the Al-Bass refugee camp near Tyre and wounded 37 others.

Akhbar 24

In the same period, TRT World reported an Israeli drone targeted a civilian family attempting to flee on the Adloun highway in the Nabi Sari area of the Zahrani district early Thursday, killing six people including children, and also reported two deaths from a drone strike on a motorcycle on the Popular Housing road in Tyre.

TRT World also reported that since March 2, Israel has been conducting an expanded offensive on Lebanon, killing more than 3,200 people, injuring over 9,600, and displacing more than 1.6 million people, according to official figures.

The BBC reported that the U.S. President Donald Trump announced on April 16 that Israeli and Lebanese leaders agreed to a ten-day ceasefire that took effect that same day, with the extension announced for three weeks after new talks between envoys in Washington.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that after Israel issued an evacuation warning, the Israeli military began new strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure around Tyre, with NNA reporting two sets of Israeli strikes hitting a building and sparking a fire in Tyre.

RFI said Israel’s evacuation warning was the first of its kind since an April 17 ceasefire, and it quoted the Israeli military saying it was “compelled to take forceful action” against Hezbollah.

Al Jazeera

In parallel, TRT World described continued violations of the ceasefire agreement and reported that an Israeli drone targeted a civilian family attempting to flee on the Adloun highway, while also reporting that an Israeli strike on the Al-Bass refugee camp near Tyre killed three people and wounded 37.

The BBC’s ceasefire explainer included Hezbollah’s position through a quote from Hezbollah official Walid Safa, who told the BBC: “Not before a real ceasefire, and not before an Israeli withdrawal.”

The BBC also quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing the agreement as a “chance to reach a historic peace agreement,” while Lebanese President Michel Aoun said, “We are at a new phase, moving from work to establish the ceasefire to pursuing lasting agreements that safeguard the rights of our people.”

As the fighting continued despite ceasefire talk, the BBC reported that Netanyahu said Israeli forces would remain deployed in southern Lebanon to a depth of up to ten kilometers, and it said UN estimates indicated more than 1.2 million people had been displaced inside Lebanon, most of them from the south.

The BBC also reported that Netanyahu said Israel had re-entered southern Lebanon after Hezbollah strikes in early March and described the area where it is deployed as a “security zone,” adding that the earlier defense minister said the area could extend to the Litani River, about 30 kilometers from the border.

In Lebanon’s capital and surrounding areas, the Lebanese army said an Israeli attack killed a soldier in southern Lebanon, while the same report said Israeli aircraft carried out new airstrikes on the southern outskirts of Beirut on Sunday, including one near Rafik Hariri University Hospital in the Jnah area.

France 24 reported that seven people were killed on Sunday, including six members of a single family, in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon, citing a Civil Defense source quoted by AFP about a raid targeting the town of Kafrheitā after an Israeli army warning to evacuate.

In a separate account of the ceasefire’s fragility, Al Jazeera Net said Hezbollah retaliated with drone attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon and reported that the number of Hezbollah attacks rose to 19 since the ceasefire took effect eight days ago, while also describing clashes in Bint Jbeil.