Israel issues forced evacuation order for entire Dahiyeh area of Lebanon’s capital, home to hundreds of thousands.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to turn the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital into another Gaza Strip, as the Israeli military ordered hundreds of thousands of people to immediately leave their homes in Beirut.

In a video shared online on Thursday, Smotrich warned that the Dahiyeh area would soon look “like Khan Younis”, a city in southern Gaza that has been decimated in Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the enclave.

“The southern suburbs will become like Khan Younis,” the Israeli minister said.

Smotrich’s threat came just hours after the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order for several areas of southern Beirut, sending residents scrambling to gather belongings and quickly leave their homes.

In a post on social media, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee ordered people out of the Burj al-Barajneh, al-Hadath, Haret Hreik and Shiyah neighbourhoods.

“It’s unprecedented that the Israeli army would order this forced evacuation order for the southern suburbs of Beirut,” Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported from Beirut, noting that more than 400,000 people live in the area.

“There isn’t really anywhere for them to go quickly,” Smith said of the Lebanese families that have been forced to flee. “There’s gridlock on the roads as people try to move out, but how Israel thinks all of those people are going to leave quickly is difficult to understand.”

Israel’s forced evacuation order in Beirut comes a day after the country issued a similar directive for all of southern Lebanon, spurring a wave of mass displacement.

Intensified cross-border fighting resumed on Monday after Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israeli territory following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran.

The Israeli military has launched a widespread aerial and ground assault against its northern neighbour, bombing areas across southern Lebanon and Beirut in what it says is a campaign against the Lebanese armed group.

For its part, Hezbollah stepped up its military operations over the past days, saying it is responding to “Israeli aggression” against the country.

The group has launched dozens of rockets and drones at Israel, and targeted Israeli troops stationed inside Lebanese territory.

Death toll surpasses 100

The conflict has left Lebanese civilians reeling, with humanitarian groups warning that Israel’s offensive will have dire consequences for a population already devastated by a steady barrage of Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.

On Thursday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 102 people have been killed and 638 others wounded across the country in the wave of Israeli attacks.

Tens of thousands of people also have been displaced across Lebanon, according to government figures, with many families from southern Lebanon seeking safety in already overcrowded shelters in Beirut.

Flights at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport also were suspended on Thursday amid the Israeli threat of further attacks on the Lebanese capital.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Israel’s forced evacuation order for hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon “raises serious risks of violations of the laws of war”.

“Calling on everyone who lives south of the Litani [River] to evacuate immediately raises serious legal and humanitarian red flags and fears for the safety of civilians,” Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher at HRW, said in a statement.

“How are older people, the sick, and people with disabilities going to be able to evacuate immediately? And how will their safety be guaranteed as they leave?”