Historic coastal city of Sur becomes new focus of Israeli bombardment on Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes began to target residential buildings and shops on the main streets of the city of Sur on Wednesday morning, just a few hours after the military spokesperson had issued evacuation orders to residents in the area.

The airstrikes were the first to ever target central areas in Sur, the principal city in Lebanon’s coastal South Governorate — an area which was still full of residents.

Many of those residing in Sur were displaced people who had taken temporary accommodation in the historic seaside city after being forced out of other areas in the south, including the neighboring governorate of Nabatieh to the east, where the principal city and its central marketplace, homes, shops and facilities have been wiped out by consecutive Israeli bombardment.

Israel issued evacuation orders online at around 8 am on Wednesday, instructing residents of a number of blocks in the center of Sur, between the streets of Hiram, Jaafar Sharaf Eddin, Abu Deeb and Athar Street.

People rushed to leave the area, according to Abbas Sharaf Eddin, a member of the civil defense agency, who said that the agency immediately moved to the affected residential blocks to ensure evacuation procedures were being implemented. Sharaf Eddin said that several people suffering with extreme anxiety were transferred quickly to nearby hospitals outside the area ordered to evacuate.

By around 11 am, a missile launched from an Israeli drone struck Sawt al-Farah street in Sur without causing extensive damage — a type of  “warning strike” that has become a common pattern in Israel’s campaign on residential areas.

By 11:30, a series of airstrikes began to target the central parts of Sur in earnest, including a religious school within the evacuation area that was toppled to the ground. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who teaches at the religious school, told Mada Masr that he would continue teaching regardless of the airstrike.

Alia Abbas, who lives in the Jaafariyeh neighborhood of Sur, said that she and her family “were displaced from our neighborhood because we received a threat from Avichay [Adraee], whose aircraft carried out his threats by bombing Sur.” She told Mada Masr that, after hearing the warning, she rushed with her three children without taking anything from the house to drive quickly to Saida, where her sister and brother-in-law live.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adrae — the Arabic voice of the Occupation military who instructs residents in Gaza and Lebanon to leave their homes — told residents of the area in Sur to evacuate north of the Awali River.

The Awali River lies 30 kilometers to the north of the Litani River, with the Litani marking the line behind which Hezbollah was to withdraw its forces under the provisions of United Nations Security Council 1701, which also stipulated for Israeli troops to cease their occupation of Lebanese land. Neither condition has been met.

An airstrike also targeted the town of Haniyeh, south of Nabatieh, near the Popular Rescue Hospital on Wednesday afternoon. Mona Abu Zeidan, director of the Popular Rescue Hospital, confirmed to Mada Masr that the airstrike did not target the hospital itself, but rather its surroundings.

She confirmed that "the hospital is still operating at full capacity and needs volunteer doctors in many specialties, as previously mentioned."

Israel’s targeting of Sur this morning came following another night of bombardment on the southern suburbs of Beirut and another bloody day in Nabatieh on Tuesday — during which an airstrike on the Toffahta town in Zahrani, Nabatieh, hit a house where a family and guests were gathered to mourn their relative who was killed in an airstrike on Monday, according to a family relative who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

The Monday airstrike had killed seven people in the town of Marwaniyeh in the Nabatieh district. Among them was a young man named Khadr Ezzedine, whose family were from Teffahta.

Following his burial in Teffahta on Tuesday, as his family hosted guests at a wake to share their condolences, an Israeli airstrike targeted their house, killing his wife and children, his wife’s parents, and other relatives — a total of 19 people.

Health authorities and civil defense workers spent hours at the site to retrieve 11 bodies, while five women and four children are still thought to be under the rubble of the house that was razed to the ground. The search and rescue teams are still searching for them.

In Beirut on Tuesday, an airstrike toppled an 11-storey building in the center of the Lebanese capital in Ghobeiry, next to the central public gardens.

Nearby, Hezbollah media spokesperson Mohamed Afif had been holding a press conference at which over a dozen media teams were present, when the Israeli military spokesperson issued a warning that the nearby building would be targeted.

During the presser, Afif acknowledged that Israel had taken people captive from among Hezbollah’s ranks without specifying how many were taken hostage. Israel has claimed for several weeks to have taken Hezbollah fighters captive.

Commenting on the warning issued just 10 minutes after the Hezbollah spokesperson began the press conference and as journalists began quickly to leave the area, Afif said that the threats would not shake the resolve of the resistance, before leaving the area himself.

Fierce clashes between Hezbollah fighters and invading Israeli troops continued to take place at villages along the Lebanese border on Wednesday, including Rab al-Thalathine, Taybeh and Odaisseh.

Israeli forces claimed on Tuesday night to have killed Hashem Saffi Eddin, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, in a massive airstrike conducted on the Lebanese capital on October 4.