Quarter of Lebanese territory is under Israeli evacuation warnings, U.N. says

A quarter of Lebanon’s territory is now under Israeli military evacuation orders, according to the United Nations, in an indication that Israel’s air and ground campaign against Hezbollah militants could spark another humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.

The assessment released Wednesday by the U.N. human rights commissioner came as smoke from airstrikes bloomed over parts of southern Lebanon, where Lebanese news media reports said that Israeli warplanes had carried out more air attacks in and around the cities of Tyre and Saida.

Hezbollah said Wednesday that it was engaged in skirmishes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Its fighters launched another barrage of missile attacks at the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Wednesday afternoon, after the militant group warned that it would render the city uninhabitable if the Israeli military continued its offensive in Lebanon.

Sirens sounded in Haifa Bay and were followed by approximately 40 rockets, according to the Israeli military, which said many were intercepted by air defenses. Explosions were heard in Haifa and surrounding villages, and Israeli emergency services officials reported that they were treating six people for shrapnel injuries after a rocket hit a bypass road near Haifa.

The Israeli airstrikes have continued more than a week after the start of a ground invasion of southern Lebanon that the military has described as “limited,” saying it aims to clear the border area of Hezbollah fighters, weapons and tunnels that threaten the security of northern Israel’s residents.

“To the people of South Lebanon, be careful!” an Israeli military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, warned in a post in Arabic. He said Israeli forces were continuing “to attack Hezbollah sites in and near your village, and for your own safety you are prohibited from returning to your homes until further notice.”

The Israeli calls for evacuations have sent residents of more than 100 villages and urban areas of southern Lebanon fleeing north, according to the United Nations, which said that the Israeli warnings now cover a quarter of Lebanon’s land area, including areas in the Bekaa Valley and along the Syrian border. More than 600,000 people in the country of 5.4 million are now displaced, threatening to overwhelm shelters, the U.N. warned.

The air and land attacks in the south followed another night of Israeli airstrikes in the densely populated areas near Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway. Although a barrage of attacks overnight into Wednesday appeared to be less intense than those of previous days, Lebanon’s death toll continued to rise, with the Health Ministry saying 36 people had been killed and more than 100 injured across the country over the past day.

More than 2,100 people have been killed and more than 10,000 injured since Israel intensified its air campaign against Hezbollah leadership in late September. The attacks have killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several other top figures.

Israeli officials said Tuesday that Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine, had also been killed in a recent strike, although Hezbollah has not confirmed his death.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.