Despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call for a ceasefire, Israeli airstrikes continued to hammer into Lebanon’s historic port city of Tyre.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed on Wednesday for a halt to fighting between Israel and militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Still, heavy Israeli air strikes on a large historic Lebanese port city demonstrated that there was no respite.
Israel began shelling the UNESCO-listed port town of Tyre about three hours after a decree issued online told residents to evacuate central areas. Thick smoke billowed above residential buildings.
Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre in the past few weeks as Israel ratchets up its campaign to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, both staunch allies of Iran.
The port is usually an upbeat hotspot for the south, with fishermen, tourists, and even UN peacekeepers taking a break from their deployments near the border and spending some time there by the sea.
Israel’s evacuation orders issued this week regarding the city have, for the first time, included vast portions of it, including parts of its ancient castle.
Lebanon’s future may be as grim as that of Gaza, whose strips have been partially bulldozed and where tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes, some of them only six months old.
In Gaza, where Israel has intensified its assault on the northern edge of the territory since killing the leader of Hamas last week, health authorities reported at least 20 people killed in fresh Israeli strikes, most in the north.
