The Israeli military has ordered the entire population of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate, as it continued to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and US bases across the region.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs – more than 500,000 people – to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately”, before Israel launched airstrikes on what he described as Hezbollah targets. The area covered by the order included several hospitals and government ministries.
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The evacuation order was issued just a day after the Israeli military ordered all residents to flee the area south of the Litani River, which compromises about 10% of the country.
Emphasis mine. It’s strange to me that very little of the conversation overall is about Lebanon, when Israel is pretty clearly invading it. Even most of this guardian report on the Beirut evacuation is about Iran.
The headline for this article from Jan 30 is probably sufficient explanation for that: US approves major new arms sales to Israel worth $6.67 billion and to Saudi Arabia worth $9 billion
Note that the guardian article also says the decision to attack Iran was made end of November 2025. They stockpiled exactly for this situation. Admittedly that’s supposedly mostly ground equipment, not bombs, but that also raises further questions about the intent.