Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has advised the Lebanese to move away from dangerous areas as Israel intensifies its strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon. According to our correspondent on the ground Clotilde Bigot, the situation in Beirut reflects a growing tension, marked by an unusually calm atmosphere.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged Lebanese citizens to “move away from dangerous areas“, at a time when Israel is pounding targets of the Islamist movement Hezbollah in the south and east of neighboring Lebanon.
In the Lebanese capital, the atmosphere is special, as reported by our correspondent on the ground, Clotilde Bigot: “The city is very calm… and Beirut which is very calm, it symbolizes that something is wrong” she notes. “It may be Monday night, but normally the streets are crowded. Plus, the weather is nice today and what I see around me is very few people, very little traffic.“.
The Lebanese population, panicked by the intense strikes carried out Monday by the Israeli army on the south of the country, fled the region to take refuge, among other places, in the suburbs of the coastal city of Tyre. The journalist saw, in the southern suburbs which have just been struck, that “Many residents have already fled these regions“. “There are obviously all the refugees who come from the south of Lebanon to Beirut and to the north of the country, but also the Beirutis and especially those from the southern suburbs who are very afraid.” she notes.
“I think we can really talk about war,” she says.We have obviously seen the number of deaths absolutely enormous. The vast majority remain in the south of Lebanon, which is a stronghold of Hezbollah, as well as in the east where there is a lot of opposition from Hezbollah. But there, we see that the Israeli army is changing its way of doing things. We are in preemptive strikes and not in a simple response to Hezbollah. So there, the Israelis seem to have started operations throughout the country.“, concludes our correspondent.
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