Israelis near Lebanese border evacuated as fighting with Hezbollah intensifies

Palestinians stretcher an injured man following an Israeli strike on building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Sunday. The United Nations reported that more than 400,000 Palestinians have already fled northern Gaza in the wake of a massive Israeli aerial bombardment in which killed more than 2000 Palestinians half of them children and women. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 16 (UPI) — Israel announced Monday it was evacuating residents near the Lebanese border, as fighting with Hezbollah intensified amid fears that its war against Hamas might expand.

The Israel Ministry of Defense and the IDF announced in a joint statement that residents of northern Israel living within 1.2 miles of the Lebanese border would be evacuated to state-funded guesthouses.

The order, which affects 28 communities comes after the IDF had closed a roughly 2.5-mile zone south of the Lebanese border a day prior.

Overnight, the IDF said its warplanes had conducted airstrikes on Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon. On Sunday, the IDF hit several targets of the Lebanese militant group while documenting anti-tank missile attacks on Israeli communities and gunfire from across the border at soldiers.

During the war, which is entering its 10th day Monday, the IDF has repeatedly exchanged violence with Hezbollah, but fighting intensified over the weekend, with United Nations peacekeepers reporting its headquarters in the southern Lebanese city of Naqoura was hit by a rocket and they are working to verify who fired it.

“We remind all the parties involved that attacks against civilians or U.N. personnel are violations of international law that may amount to war crimes,” UNIFIL said in a statement.

Israel has been waging war against Hamas since the militant group launched a surprise attack on the Middle Eastern country on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,300 Israelis and taking some 120 others hostage.

In retaliation, Israel has been waging war against Hamas, incessantly bombing the Gaza Strip the militant group has controlled since the mid-2000s, killing 2,670 Palestinians and wounding another 9,600 as of late Sunday, per Palestine health ministry data.

More than a million Palestinians, nearly half of Gaza’s population, have been displaced in the Palestinian enclave that borders Egypt to the south, Israel to the east and north and the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

The United Nations relief agency in Gaza said nearly 400,000 of the displaced are in sheltering in its facilities, far exceeding their capacity.

Late Friday, Israel ordered all 1.1 million northern Gazans to make their way south, in advance of a highly expected ground invasion. Hundreds of thousands have and are heeding Israel’s order, but the UNRWA warns that an unknown number of displaced people remain sheltering in its northern school facilities.

The evacuation is straining already spent healthcare in Gaza, with the UNRWA stating the order applies to 23 of its northern hospitals in Gaza that have a capacity of 2,000 beds, leaving it with only 1,500 in the south.

Gaza has been without aid, water and electricity for days, and though Israel Energy Minister Israel Katz over the weekend said he would open water lines in southern Gaza, UNRWA said people are being forced to consume brackish water from agricultural wells, raising concerns over the spread of waterborne diseases.

During a press conference Sunday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said Hamas’ attack was horrendous but the answer is not the killing of more civilians.

“Imposing a siege and bombarding civilian infrastructure in a densely populated area will not bring peace and security to the region,” he said.

“The siege in Gaza, the way it is imposed, is nothing else than collective punishment.”

Katz lashed out at UNRWA online on Monday over its statement that “no place is safe in Gaza” due to Israel’s bombing by calling the agency a disgrace to the United Nations.

“It is sad that the United Nations has become a propaganda arm of Hamas,” he said. “We will not stop.”

On Sunday U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the Rafah border crossing would be reopened, raising hopes that supplies sitting in Egypt may soon enter Gaza.

He gave no specifics but the U.S. Embassy in Israel issued a security alert early Monday stating the crossing will open at 9 a.m. for Palestinians to exit into Egypt and for aid and supplies to enter Gaza.

“We anticipate that the situation at the Rafah crossing will remain fluid and unpredictable and it is unclear whether, or for how long, travelers will be permitted to transit the crossing,” the alert said. “If you assess it to be safe, you may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing — there may be very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time.”

As the war has been waged against Hamas in Gaza, the Iran-backed Hezbollah has been firing rockets at northern Israeli communities from neighboring Lebanon, prompting a response from the Israel Defense Forces.