Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in southern Lebanon as Israel issues a forced evacuation order for the entire area.
Published March 4, 2026
Israel has issued a forced evacuation order for all residents of southern Lebanon, worsening a wave of mass displacement as the Israeli military continues to launch deadly attacks across the country.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Israeli military ordered Lebanese civilians to “evacuate (their) homes immediately and move north beyond the Litani River” as it planned to bomb what it described as Hezbollah targets.
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“Tens of thousands of people are being forced north,” Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported from the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
At least 83,000 people have been displaced from their homes across Lebanon since Israel launched new airstrikes against the country earlier this week, according to the latest figures from Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs.
Cross-border fighting intensified on Monday after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israeli territory following the start of Israeli and US attacks on Iran, which backs the Lebanese group, on Saturday.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 72 people, including seven children, have been killed and another 437 wounded in the wave of Israeli attacks, which have targeted the south of the country as well as areas of the capital, Beirut.
The Israeli army also pushed deeper into Lebanese territory on Monday, launching a ground invasion of southern Lebanon alongside its aerial bombardment.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said on Wednesday that Israel was expanding the scope of its attacks, leveling at least five residential buildings in the city’s southern suburbs.
“There are Israeli fighter jets, the constant drone of Israeli drones and people receiving phone calls telling them to evacuate their buildings. There is chaos and a lot of panic in Lebanon about where this conflict is going,” he reported.
Hezbollah on Wednesday also announced more than a dozen military operations against Israel, including rocket launches and direct clashes with Israeli troops, as it accelerated the pace of its attacks.
Aid groups have warned that renewed fighting will have dire consequences for a Lebanese population already reeling from a constant barrage of Israeli attacks since Israel began its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that tens of thousands of people had already been uprooted from their homes before this week’s attacks began.
UNICEF said in a statement that “more than 12,000 families have found shelter in more than 300 open shelters across the country, and dozens are already at full capacity.”
Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his government would “spare no effort” to end the war and help displaced families return to their homes.
“Our people who had to leave their homes are not responsible for what has happened to them. They are victims, victims of policies that were not theirs,” Salam said during a press conference.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also asked the US ambassador to Lebanon during a meeting on Wednesday to urge Washington to intervene to stop the Israeli attacks, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency.
The US-Israel war with Iran, which has killed more than 1,000 people in that country since Saturday, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, has fueled a spiraling crisis across the Middle East.
Tehran has launched retaliatory missile and drone attacks against numerous countries in the region, killing at least six US service members and 11 people in Israel.
