Hello and welcome to the details of ‘The city is almost empty’: Residents flee Lebanon’s Baalbek as Israel orders mass evacuation over ‘forceful action’ against Hezbollah and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - People wait along the side of a road for their ride before evacuating Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley on October 30, 2024, after a statement from the Israeli army spokesperson warning residents of incoming strikes. — AFP pic
BAALBEK (Lebanon), Oct 30 — Residents of Baalbek rushed out of their homes today after the Israeli army ordered Lebanon’s main eastern city and its outskirts evacuated for the first time in more than a month of war.
The Israeli army urged residents of Baalbek and surrounding villages to leave immediately, warning it was preparing attacks on Hezbollah targets.
The main roads out of the city were jammed with vehicles as civilians fled in panic, an AFP correspondent reported.
Civil defence vehicles drove around the city urging everyone to leave immediately over loudspeaker.
Mosques and churches in the city delivered the same message over their loudspeakers.
“The city is almost empty,” the correspondent said about an hour after the evacuation warning.
Before the evacuation order, the war had forced 60 per cent of its estimated 250,000 residents to flee, an official previously told AFP, while the rest were mainly crammed into the city’s few Sunni-majority neighbourhoods.
“The (Israeli army) will act forcefully against Hezbollah interests within your city and villages”, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
A picture shows smoke billowing from a tissue factory after an overnight Israeli strike on the Lebanese city of Baalbeck in the Bekaa valley on October 11, 2024. — AFP pic
The post included a map of the entire city and its outskirts.
Known as Heliopolis (City of the Sun) in ancient times, Baalbek boasts one of the world’s largest complex of Roman temples — designated a World Heritage site by Unesco.
On Monday, Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 60 people were killed in Israeli raids on the eastern Bekaa Valley, most of them in the Baalbek region.
After nearly a year of cross-border fire with Hezbollah, Israel last month ramped up strikes on the group’s strongholds and then sent ground forces across the border.
The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of
These were the details of the news ‘The city is almost empty’: Residents flee Lebanon’s Baalbek as Israel orders mass evacuation over ‘forceful action’ against Hezbollah for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
