GENEVA: Israel has issued military evacuation orders affecting more than a quarter of Lebanon, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday, two weeks after the Israeli military began incursions into south Lebanon to battle Hezbollah. The figures underscore the heavy price Lebanese are paying as Israel tries to defeat the group and destroy its infrastructure in their one-year-old conflict.
The U.N. refugee agency's Middle East director, Rema Jamous Imseis, said new Israeli evacuation orders to 20 villages in southern Lebanon meant that over a quarter of the country was now affected.
"People are heeding these calls to evacuate, and they're fleeing with almost nothing," she told a briefing in Geneva. Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,309 people over the last year, the Lebanese government said, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced. The majority have been killed since late September when Israel expanded its military campaign. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel says its operation in Lebanon aims to secure the return of tens of thousands of residents forced to flee their homes in northern Israel because of Hezbollah attacks. Israel expanded its bombing campaign in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 22 people in an airstrike in the north on a house where displaced people were seeking refuge from Israeli strikes further south, health officials said.
"What we are hearing is that amongst the 22 people killed were 12 women and two children," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said of Monday's strike on Christian-majority Aitou. He called for an investigation about a strike which he said has raised concerns with respect to "the laws of war".
The main focus of Israel's military operations in Lebanon has been in the Bekaa Valley in the east, the suburbs of Beirut and in the south, where U.N. peacekeepers say Israeli fire has hit their bases on numerous occasions and wounded peacekeepers. Israel's military said about 20 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory after sirens sounded in the Haifa Bay and Upper Galilee areas, and that some were intercepted.
The U.S. has stood by Israel in its conflicts despite concerns over civilian casualties. The Pentagon said components for an advanced anti-missile system began arriving in Israel on Monday and that it would be fully operational in the near future, according to a statement on Tuesday. The U.N. Security Council on Monday expressed strong concern after several peacekeeping positions in southern Lebanon again came under fire. — Reuters
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