Israeli forces have killed at least eight people in strikes in the southern city of Tyre after issuing a forced displacement order for its residents, as Iran warned of “crushing measures” if Israel presses ahead with its assault on the country.
The killings on Tuesday came as an Israeli airstrike hit a popular housing area of the coastal city, the civil defence agency told Al Jazeera. The displacement order included the city’s Christian quarter that had previously been excluded. The Israeli army alleges Hezbollah fighters are operating there.
In recent days the city has been repeatedly attacked. On Tuesday, five people were killed and eight wounded in a strike near a Red Cross centre in Tyre, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Among those injured there were four paramedics, the report said, adding that the bombardment also damaged a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The wave of deadly strikes came after Iran and Israel traded fire in the most significant escalation since their “ceasefire” began on April 8. The flare-up was triggered by an Israeli attack on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, on Sunday.
“We’ve seen a continuous escalation by Israel since the tit-for-tat exchange of fire between Iran and Israel was put out, basically by both sides saying that they weren’t going to carry out any more attacks on each other,” said Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Tyre.
“But Israel has made it a point to exclude southern Lebanon, saying that it was going to continue targeting whatever they say is a potential threat to their northern communities here in the south.”
The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which has been fighting invading Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, claimed to have carried out 16 operations against Israeli forces, including near the strategic Beaufort Castle.
The group said it had targeted and destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers in the village of Yohmor al-Shaqif near the castle and struck multiple enemy troop concentrations. It also said it intercepted an Israeli drone operating in the airspace over Iqlim al-Tuffah.
Lebanon was drawn into the US-Israel war on Iran on March 2, when the Tehran-aligned Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, citing continued Israeli attacks on the country and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28.
While the US and Iran agreed a ceasefire on April 8, Israel has not halted its campaign in Lebanon, insisting the two fronts are separate.
Iran, however, has long maintained that any peace deal with Washington must include an end to fighting in Lebanon.
Announcing the end of its strikes on Israel on Monday, Iran’s military warned that continued aggression – including in southern Lebanon – would be met with “much more severe and crushing measures”.
But Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz rejected the warning, pledging to press ahead with operations against Hezbollah and to launch attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs in response to any strikes on northern Israel.
“Any Iranian attempt to link Lebanon and Iran and attack Israel will be met with great force,” he said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, meanwhile, said on Monday that Israel has carried out nearly 3,500 air strikes, 407 demolitions, and six so-called “razing” operations – which have flattened entire villages – since April 16.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health said the overall death toll from the Israeli offensive since March 2 has risen to 3,637, with a further 11,188 wounded.
More than one million people, or a fifth of Lebanon’s population, have been displaced.
Salam’s office said that government shelters “have reached maximum absorption capacity in Beirut, Sidon, and all other regions”.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), meanwhile, warned that Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis was worsening, with 94 percent of displaced people struggling to meet their basic needs.
Many of those returning to southern Lebanon were finding their homes or entire villages destroyed, said Rick Bartoldus, the IRC’s country director for Lebanon.
“The humanitarian needs are massive, and if we have any hope of recovery, we need to see a lasting ceasefire,” he told Al Jazeera.
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