UPDATE 3-Israel warns people to leave Beirut's southern suburbs

Israel warned residents to leave Beirut's southern suburbs, including Hezbollah-controlled areas, on Thursday, prompting an exodus from a swathe of the capital known as Dahiyeh which a far-right Israeli minister said would soon resemble parts of Gaza.

Suggesting a major escalation looms in Israel's ‌offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah, an Israeli military spokesperson told residents of the southern suburbs to move east and north, posting a map showing four large districts of the capital he said they must leave. Lebanon was pulled into the war in the Middle East on Monday, when Hezbollah opened fire, sparking Israeli airstrikes focused on Beirut's southern suburbs and on southern and eastern Lebanon. "Save your lives, evacuate your homes immediately," the military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted on ‌X, saying that any movement southwards may endanger their lives. Roads out of the suburbs were clogged as people fled by car and on foot, television footage showed. The sound of warning shots could be heard ‌in the southern suburbs, exhorting residents to leave.

Aliyyeh Hijazi, 66, said she fled her village in southern Lebanon at the start of the week for the city of Sidon in the south, before moving again to a relative's home in Dahiyeh, only to flee again after Thursday's warning. "Our lives are over, especially those of us from the south. They say the southerner is very strong, but now the southerner can't bear it anymore," said the mother of 10, speaking to Reuters in Beirut's Martyrs Square where many of the ⁠displaced gathered, among ​them women and children wearing backpacks.

SMOTRICH: 'YOU HAVE BROUGHT HELL ⁠UPON YOURSELVES' Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich posted a video on X from near the Lebanon border, in which he said that Dahiyeh would soon resemble parts of Gaza, where Israel's two-year military campaign against Hezbollah's ally Hamas has left much of the territory in ruins.

"You ⁠wanted to bring hell on us but you have brought hell upon yourselves. The Dahiyeh will look like Khan Younis. Our northern residents will soon live in quiet, peace and security," said Smotrich, who sits on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security ​cabinet. The area highlighted in the Israeli military map includes neighbourhoods controlled by Hezbollah but also spreads into adjoining ones.

While Israel has previously ordered people to leave buildings in Dahiyeh, this was the first ⁠time it instructed residents of the entire area to leave. Israel also instructed residents of the eastern Bekaa Valley region, another area of Hezbollah influence, to leave. On Wednesday, the Israeli military had ordered residents to leave a swathe of the south.

LEBANON'S DEATH TOLL INCREASES TO 102 Nearly all ⁠outgoing ​and incoming flights to Beirut airport, which is adjacent to the zone identified by the Israeli military, were cancelled for Thursday evening and Friday. Some residents of Beirut's southern suburbs told Reuters they had received calls from European numbers playing a recorded message from someone identifying themselves as a member of the Israeli military and telling them to leave their homes. Beirut's predominantly Shi'ite Muslim southern suburbs are among the capital's most densely populated ⁠areas. The area was pounded by Israeli airstrikes during a war with Hezbollah in 2024 and during a previous war with Israel in 2006. Israeli bombardment and warnings have already forced tens of thousands of Lebanese ⁠to flee homes in the southern suburbs and the south ⁠this week. The Lebanese health ministry said 102 people have been killed in Israeli attacks. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, said on Wednesday that seven children had been killed. There have been no reports of fatalities in Israel as a result of Hezbollah attacks.