• Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive kills 217, injures 798; 300,000 flee their homes
• Israel says residential buildings targeted in southern Beirut; bombs ancient city of Tyre
• UN officials call crisis unprecedented, criticise evacuation orders

BEIRUT: A relentless Israeli air and ground assault pushed deeper into Lebanon on Friday, pounding the southern suburbs of Beirut, the port city of Tyre, and other towns in a brutal campaign that has killed at least 217 people and forced an estimated 300,000 to flee their homes.

Israel’s expanding invasion of Lebanon created scenes of panic and chaos, with vast columns of smoke rising over the Beirut skyline.

The bombardments followed the widest evacuation orders ever issued by Israel in Lebanon, ordering all residents to leave the capital’s densely-populated southern suburbs as well as large areas of southern and eastern Lebanon.

The aggressive Israeli military action has triggered a massive displacement crisis.

The Norwegian Refugee Council estimated that 300,000 people have been displaced, warning the number could exceed one million.

Thousands of terrified families with nowhere to go have crowded into streets and public spaces, seeking any shelter from the onslaught.

“We’re sleeping here in the streets — some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach,” said Jamal Seifeddin, 43, who spent a desperate night outside in downtown Beirut. “I’ve never slept on the ground like this. I’ve been forced to. No one even brought a blanket.”

Imran Riza, the UN Humanitarian Coor­dinator in Lebanon, described the situation as unprecedented.

“What we saw in the last couple of days is, I would say ... unprecedented in terms of the scale here in Lebanon of the warnings, the displacement orders, and the reaction, the panic also, that this has all created,” Riza said. The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, sharply criticised Israel’s evacuation orders, stating they raised serious concerns under international humanitarian law.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported a devastating surge in the death toll to 217 since the Israeli offensive began on Monday, with another 798 people wounded.

In stark contrast, no fatalities have been reported in Israel as a result of retaliatory attacks from Hezbollah. The Israeli military said eight of its soldiers were injured.

The resistance group Hezbollah, defending Lebanon against the invasion, confirmed it was fighting an Israeli ground force near the southern town of Khiyam, where it targeted a gathering of Israeli military vehicles. Reuters footage showed an Israeli armoured vehicle inside the town.

Hezbollah vowed that Israel’s aggression would not go unanswered, issuing a message in Hebrew on its Telegram channel warning Israelis in towns within 5km of the border to leave their homes.

“Your military’s aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and safe citizens, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the expulsion campaign it is carrying out will not go unchallenged,” it said.

An Israeli military official claimed its forces launched several waves of strikes against about 115 targets, admitting they were located in residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The assault also struck Tyre, an ancient coastal city which boasts a Unesco World Heritage site. It also targeted northern city of Tripoli, the southern cities of Sidon, and Nabatieh, and Baalbek in the east.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2026