The Israeli military launched new strikes in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre early Thursday, hours after ordering residents in parts of the city to evacuate and a day after declaring all areas south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River “combat zones.”
According to the Lebanese health ministry, initial reports confirm three people were killed and 37 others were injured in the strikes, including eight children and 13 women. The zone, which includes Tyre and stretches roughly 40 kilometers from the border, was placed under the Israeli warning ahead of the attacks as many Lebanese were preparing to celebrate Eid Al-Adha.
The developments follow a fresh evacuation order on May 27, in which the Israeli military ordered residents of parts of Tyre to leave, under the guise that it was “forced to act with force” against Hezbollah. The military later stated on Telegram that it had begun strikes on what it described as the group’s infrastructure.
Following this order, eyewitness accounts reported the killing of a family of four in an Israeli drone strike on their vehicle on the Adloun highway, which connects the cities of Tyre and Sidon, as they attempted to flee. Another Israeli strike targeted two people on a motorcycle on the same highway.
On the frontline, Israeli forces admitted that a soldier had been killed by a Hezbollah drone near the Lebanon border, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the war on Lebanon to 24. The military statement added that one reservist soldier was severely wounded and another moderately wounded in the same incident.
Earlier this week, Israel had vowed to escalate its operations in Lebanon and said it was expanding ground operations there after incurring blows via Hezbollah’s FPV drone operations. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its fighters had clashed with Israeli forces beyond an Israeli-declared “yellow line” in the south.
The sweeping forced evacuation order is the first of its kind since an April 17 “ceasefire,” which followed the April 8 “Black Wednesday” Israeli attacks. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, those April 8 attacks resulted in 357 deaths and 1,223 injuries, involving more than 100 simultaneous attacks across the country within a span of just 10 minutes.
Amid the ongoing attacks, talks between Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are expected to take place on Friday in Washington, ahead of a new round of direct negotiations the following week aimed at ending the conflict.
A Lebanese delegation of six army officers, headed by the army’s director of operations Georges Rizkallah, will take part in Friday’s talks.
The overall death toll in Lebanon has risen to 3,269 since March 2, 2026, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health, representing an increase of 56 from the previous day following heavy Israeli strikes.
