Tel Aviv/Beirut, Oct. 15, (dpa/GNA) – Following repeated attacks by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia from southern Lebanon, Israel has ordered the evacuation of settlements up to 2 kilometres from the border area.
The office of Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday that 28 towns on Israel’s northern border were affected. The residents were to be taken to safety at state expense and housed in guest houses.
The Israeli army had already declared a 4-kilometre-wide strip in the border area a restricted zone on Sunday. Since the unprecedented surprise attack by Palestinian extremist organization Hamas on Israel and the counter-attacks by the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip, there have been increasingly violent incidents on the border between Israel and Lebanon in recent days, fuelling concerns of a further regional escalation of the conflict.
GNA