In a video shared online on Thursday, Smotrich warned that the Dahiyeh area would soon look \u201clike Khan Younis\u201d, a city in southern Gaza<\/a> that has been decimated in Israel\u2019s genocidal war against Palestinians in the enclave.<\/p>\n Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n \u201cThe southern suburbs will become like Khan Younis,\u201d the Israeli minister said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Smotrich\u2019s threat came just hours after the Israeli army issued a forced evacuation order for several areas of southern Beirut, sending residents scrambling to gather belongings and quickly leave their homes.<\/p>\n In a post on social media, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee ordered people out of the Burj al-Barajneh, al-Hadath, Haret Hreik and Shiyah neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unprecedented that the Israeli army would order this forced evacuation order for the southern suburbs of Beirut,\u201d Al Jazeera\u2019s Bernard Smith reported from Beirut, noting that more than 400,000 people live in the area.<\/p>\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t really anywhere for them to go quickly,\u201d Smith said of the Lebanese families that have been forced to flee. \u201cThere\u2019s gridlock on the roads as people try to move out, but how Israel thinks all of those people are going to leave quickly is difficult to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s forced evacuation order in Beirut comes a day after the country issued a similar directive for all of southern Lebanon, spurring a wave of mass displacement.<\/p>\n Intensified cross-border fighting resumed on Monday after Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israeli territory following the killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Israeli military has launched a widespread aerial and ground assault against its northern neighbour, bombing areas across southern Lebanon and Beirut in what it says is a campaign against the Lebanese armed group<\/a>.<\/p>\n For its part, Hezbollah stepped up its military operations over the past days, saying it is responding to \u201cIsraeli aggression\u201d against the country.<\/p>\n The group has launched dozens of rockets and drones at Israel, and targeted Israeli troops stationed inside Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n The conflict has left Lebanese civilians reeling, with humanitarian groups warning that Israel\u2019s offensive will have dire consequences for a population already devastated by a steady barrage of Israeli attacks<\/a> since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 102 people have been killed and 638 others wounded across the country in the wave of Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n Tens of thousands of people also have been displaced across Lebanon, according to government figures, with many families from southern Lebanon seeking safety in already overcrowded shelters in Beirut.<\/p>\n Flights at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport also were suspended on Thursday amid the Israeli threat of further attacks on the Lebanese capital.<\/p>\n Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Israel\u2019s forced evacuation order for hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon \u201craises serious risks of violations of the laws of war\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Vehicles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/reuters_69a9aa50-1772726864.jpg\")
Traffic after Israel\u2019s forced evacuation orders for Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs [Claudia Greco\/Reuters]Death toll surpasses 100<\/p>\n
![\"Beirut](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/reuters_69a9aa52-1772726867.jpg\")
Beirut traffic surges after Israel\u2019s forced evacuation order for the city\u2019s southern suburbs [Khalil Ashawi\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel issues forced evacuation order for entire Dahiyeh area of Lebanon\u2019s capital, home to hundreds of thousands. Listen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1153,1155,85,46,48084,14176,88,47,2899,43],"class_list":["post-323579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-conflict","tag-human-rights","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-attacks-lebanon","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}