Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – Israel issued an unprecedented evacuation warning on Thursday for the entirety of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah, sending residents in the district of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing in a panic. The warning followed a fresh wave of Israeli attacks on Iran, which again lashed out at Gulf nations Qatar and Bahrain as the Middle East war reverberated throughout the region and far beyond. The war has drawn in global powers, snarling shipping and rattling energy markets. It has been felt as far away as the Sri Lankan coast, where a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship, and Azerbaijan, which threatened retaliation after a drone hit an airport.
Lebanon was dragged into the conflict on Monday, when the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli strikes that launched the war. Israel responded with air strikes and sent ground troops into some Lebanese border villages, and told residents of a large area of south Lebanon to leave in anticipation of military operations there. In a message to the residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, an Israeli military spokesman said: “Save your lives and evacuate your residences immediately.” Such warnings typically foreshadow large-scale attacks, and massive traffic jams formed on the outskirts of the suburbs, as people fired guns in the air, urging locals to leave as soon as possible.
Earlier in the day, Israel said its forces had hit “several command centres belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation” in south Beirut. Lebanese authorities say at least 72 people have been killed, 437 wounded and 83,000 displaced from their homes since Monday.
On Iran’s borders, neighbour Azerbaijan warned a drone attack on its airport “will not go unanswered”, raising fears of another country entering the war that has engulfed the region. Iran’s armed forces denied being behind the strike, but that did not stop Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev from accusing Tehran of “terrorism”. Australia deployed two military aircraft to the theatre while Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he could not rule out his armed forces taking part in hostilities. The war has also dragged in NATO member Turkey after alliance air defences destroyed a missile launched from Iran heading towards Turkish airspace. A Turkish official said the missile appeared to have been aimed at a British base in Cyprus, but Turkey nonetheless summoned the Iranian ambassador over the incident.
Following fresh strikes on the Iranian capital, AFPTV images showed blackened vehicles and mangled buildings, with smoke still rising from some. A 30-year-old Tehran resident told AFP: “We’re going through a very important page of our history and I’m not afraid. Hope is the only thing that we have right now.” An Iranian state-run foundation said the death toll from US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic has risen to 1,230, a toll AFP could not independently verify. The country is effectively cut off from the rest of the world, with the internet operating at around one percent of capacity, according to the Netblocks monitor. Israel’s war aims were to “inflict severe damage on the Iranian terror regime until it removes the existential threat,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised briefing. Defence Minister Israel Katz said his US counterpart Pete Hegseth had assured him of Washington’s firm backing for their joint military campaign against Iran and urged him to continue the operation “to the end”. AFP reporters in Jerusalem heard explosions following warnings of incoming Iranian missile fire.
The conflict has not spared the rich Gulf monarchies, usually seen as a safe haven in a volatile region, as Iran has lashed out at cities and energy infrastructure. Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began, including an 11-year-old girl in Kuwait. Qatar said Thursday it was intercepting an incoming missile attack as loud blasts, described by AFP journalists as the most intense yet, reverberated across Doha, where a thick column of black smoke billowed across the horizon. It had earlier evacuated residents living near the US embassy in Doha, after previously thwarting attacks on Hamad International Airport. Falling debris from an intercepted drone also injured six people in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, officials said. Meanwhile, some Western diplomats in the Saudi capital Riyadh were told on Thursday to shelter in place, diplomats told AFP, and a witness said the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh had been closed off.
The war could usher in a “prolonged period of flux” for the global economy, warned International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards have claimed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf chokepoint through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil flows, with oil tanker transits down 90 percent, according to market intelligence firm Kpler.
© 2024 AFP
