Tyre, Lebanon. Israel struck the historic port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The raids came after Israel and Iran halted direct attacks on each other on Monday, following an appeal by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Strike on Tyre
The Israeli raids were the deadliest on Tyre since fighting erupted in Lebanon on March 2. The strikes followed an Israeli evacuation order covering the entire city.
A video purporting to show the aftermath of a deadly strike on the city’s eastern edge, whose location was verified by Reuters, showed debris scattered along a road. Lebanese state media said rescuers were still searching for survivors.
Regional tensions
Although Israel and Iran halted direct attacks on each other on Monday, Tehran said it would resume hostilities if Israel continued attacking its ally, the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of its sponsor, two days after Israel and the United States unleashed war on Iran.
Impact on ceasefire efforts
Israel’s refusal to end its campaign in Lebanon, as Iran demands, has hindered Trump’s efforts to extend a tenuous ceasefire in the wider U.S.-Israeli war with Iran into a durable settlement.
As a truce announced on April 8 largely held in the war in the Gulf, Trump said two U.S. helicopter crew were “fine” following their rescue by a U.S. Navy drone after their Apache gunship went down in the Iranian-controlled Strait of Hormuz.
Evacuation and displacement
Last week, Israel’s military said Hezbollah fighters were hiding out in Tyre. Lebanese state media reported that people fled the city on Tuesday morning after the online evacuation order, with civil defence teams transporting elderly residents into temporary shelters.
Israeli evacuation orders for southern Lebanon, much of which its troops occupy, have effectively emptied a fifth of the entire country, including areas far beyond the front lines.