Israeli Airstrikes Pound Ancient Lebanese City of Tyre

Overnight, Israel demanded an evacuation of civilians from a broad swathe of the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre. They announced that they were going to “forcefully” act against Hezbollah, and if you’ve been following the Lebanon news, that means they’re going to hit a lot of residential buildings. This morning, the first airstrikes started.

At least four airstrikes were reported so far today against the city, with images of smoke seen rising from the city. The casualties aren’t clear, but the strikes were within just a few hundred meters of the UN World Heritage site in Tyre, an ancient Phoenician city and the home of Roman ruins, which includes the city’s Hippodrome.

There have yet to be any casualty reports out of the city about the strikes. Local officials are saying that while the evacuation order doesn’t technically order the entire city to evacuate, it’s broad enough that effectively everyone left in the city is in the process of fleeing.

When Israel launched the invasion of Lebanon last month, a lot of people fled from Tyre, which originally had a population of 60,000 people. At the same time people were fleeing from Tyre, other people from the surrounding parts of southern Lebanon were fleeing to Tyre, and it was believed that up until yesterday, there were still about 14,000 people seeking shelter there.

A city with over 5,000 years of history, Tyre is believed to be the home of Hezbollah’s South Front Unit headquarters. It’s not clear that was actually the target that was hit so far though, nor is it clear what else Israel is targeting across the city.

City officials say they hope most of the population was able to flee in the few hours between Israel’s evacuation order and the start of the strikes. They said the orders were centered around the residential and commercial areas in the city. In the first month of the war, residential districts seem to be strongly favored for Israeli strikes.