SIDON, Lebanon — Christian religious leaders from Lebanon\u2019s southern port city of Tyre called on the international community and Lebanese officials on Tuesday to act quickly to prevent Israel from attacking the Christian district of the city, as airstrikes on nearby neighborhoods killed eight people and wounded dozens of others.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military has issued an evacuation warning for the port city, including the Christian quarter, which has been spared so far. <\/p>\n
The statement by the Christian leaders was from George Iskandar, the metropolitan archbishop of Tyre for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church; Elias Kfoury, the Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Tyre, Sidon and Dependencies; and Charbel Abdullah, the archeparch of the Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre.<\/p>\n
The warning from Israel’s military prompted hundreds of people to flee the Christian district along the Mediterranean coast, while members of the Civil Defense evacuated older people to safer areas, the state-run National News Agency said. <\/p>\n
Cars packed with mattresses, luggage and household belongings stretched for kilometers along Lebanon\u2019s coastal highway, as residents fled Tyre following the latest Israeli warning. Traffic ground to a halt as families crammed whatever they could into vehicles, with carpets protruding from rooftops, and trunks were left partially open to accommodate furniture and personal belongings. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the warnings in Tyre, we left. We picked up and left,\u201d said Ali Bahar, who was traveling with his wife and three children in a car loaded with possessions. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere should we go? There is nowhere to go,\u201d Bahar said. \u201cWe will end up in the streets. We are heading to Sidon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby, Hussein Darwish sat in the gridlock after packing his vehicle with what he could carry. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe left to be reassured and safe,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
An Israeli airstrike Tuesday in another neighborhood in Tyre killed eight people and wounded 32 others, according to the Health Ministry. <\/p>\n
The three Christian leaders called on the international community and Lebanese leaders to \u201ctake immediate and serious action to spare the old quarter of Tyre from destruction and human tragedies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli warning to Tyre came after Israel and Iran traded fire following Israel’s targeting of Hezbollah<\/a> in Beirut on Sunday, triggering heightened tensions in the Middle East and fears that the conflict could spread further.<\/p>\n Over the past few weeks, Israel\u2019s airstrikes have caused wide destruction in Tyre, the fourth-largest city in the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n Considered one of the oldest metropolises of the world, Tyre has several archaeological sites, some of them submerged. The city was officially declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.<\/p>\n \u201cThe old city is not merely a residential area,\u201d the clergy said in their statement. \u201cIt is the historical and human heart of Tyre, home to thousands of civilians, including families, children, and the elderly.\u201d <\/p>\n They said that the old quarter also holds a rich cultural, religious and civilizational heritage dating back centuries.<\/p>\n \u201cAny targeting or destruction of this neighborhood would constitute a humanitarian and national catastrophe with irreversible consequences,\u201d they warned.<\/p>\n Kfoury said that the ongoing conflict isn’t only a war on Hezbollah.<\/p>\n \u201cThe war is against all of Lebanon, not just one particular group within Lebanon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are destroying Lebanon. Period,\u201d Kfoury said about the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war that broke out on March 2,<\/a> when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after the U.S. and Iran began attacking Iran on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n He said that the fighting should stop because it’s a \u201cdestructive war.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, Israel warned the Christian neighborhoods in Tyre that Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled to those areas over the past two weeks, because they were spared from the aerial bombardment along the Mediterranean coast.<\/p>\n After last week\u2019s warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the Christian district of Tyre in an effort to prevent Israeli attacks there and to show that Hezbollah has no armed presence in the area.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the Israeli military\u2019s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee<\/a>, posted on X that as the military warned days ago that Hezbollah members were working inside the Christian district, the Israeli military \u201cwill have to act against their terrorist activities in the neighborhood soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Adraee said that any building used by Hezbollah for military purposes \u201cmay be subject to targeting.\u201d<\/p>\n