Lebanese start fleeing south Beirut after Israel says will target the area

The proposal aims to create a conducive environment for a gradual de-escalation and a cessation of all hostilities, the official says.

Large numbers of people are fleeing Dahiyeh in the south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, jamming roads leading out of the suburb, where Hezbollah enjoys wide support, after Israel’s government ordered strikes on the area.

The Israeli military has been given orders by the government to attack the southern suburbs on Monday, a day after the army reached its deepest point in Lebanon in more than quarter of a century.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from southern Beirut, said many people in started packing their belongings immediately after the attack orders were announced by the Israeli government on Monday morning.

“At approximately 7:00 GMT, the Israeli prime minister and the Israeli defence minister issued a joint statement, saying that they ordered the Israeli army to target Beirut’s southern suburbs, and immediately after that people started packing whatever they could, and make their way out of these neghbourhoods,” she said.

“There are not many places left to go as government-run shelters are already full, and many people will stay in their cars, waiting to see what will happen.”

Israel’s defence minister said in a separate statement on Monday that there would be “no calm in Beirut” if Hezbollah attacks continued, and vowed to establish a military-controlled zone in the area of south Lebanon’s Litani River.

“The Dahiyeh in Beirut is no different from the communities in northern Israel – if there is no calm in the north, there will be no calm in Beirut,” Israel Katz said in a statement released by his office, referring to the Beirut southern suburb and Hezbollah stronghold where he had earlier Monday ordered strikes.

“At the same time, the IDF continues to operate with fire and manoeuvre against Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure in Lebanon… in order to push threats away from IDF forces and from the residents of the State of Israel, and to turn the Litani area into a zone under IDF security control, free of weapons and terrorists.”

Israel’s military took over the medieval Beaufort Castle just north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon on Sunday as it conducts its deepest push into the country in decades.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised to push deeper into Lebanon and called Sunday’s operation a “dramatic shift” in the campaign against Hezbollah, ordered the military on Monday to attack targets in ⁠⁠Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, ⁠a ⁠stronghold ⁠of the Lebanese