Causing destruction in the center and causing families to flee, the Israeli army carried out several strikes on Wednesday on Tyre, a large coastal city in southern Lebanon and a thousand-year-old Phoenician city.
“The whole city shook”confides Rana. Early Wednesday, after the Israeli army’s call to evacuate, this resident who prefers to speak only by her first name found refuge on the seafront.
Tyre, which is home to ancient sites inscribed by UNESCO on its world heritage list, currently has 14,500 inhabitants, including around 4,500 displaced people from neighboring villages, according to statistics from the local crisis management center.
Wednesday’s strikes, the most violent since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah a month ago, hit “the heart of Tyre”continues Rana.
AFP images showed thick plumes of gray smoke rising above buildings in the Mediterranean city.
The Lebanese news agency Ani reported several bombings, including one carried out by a “enemy drone”on a street located less than a kilometer from the archaeological ruins.
The shelling of the center caused “massive destruction and damage to houses, infrastructure, commercial signs and cars”specified Ani.
Exodus
Questioned by AFP, the media manager of the crisis management center, Bilal Kachmar, assured that seven buildings were destroyed, while more than 400 apartments in the surrounding area were blown up.
Rescuers in a street in Tyre, southern Lebanon, after an Israeli strike on October 23, 2024 / KAWNAT HAJU / AFP
Four streets were completely blocked by the rubble, he said, ensuring that two people were injured.
Earlier, after the Israeli army’s call to evacuate announcing the upcoming strikes, he confirmed that families were starting to leave the threatened areas.
“People went to the suburbs of the city, they moved away from the center”he told AFP.
Rescue workers helped elderly people leave their neighborhoods, circulating in the streets to warn residents via loudspeakers and order them to leave, according to Ani.
An AFP photographer in the coastal town of Saida, further north, saw dozens of cars on the coastal highway crammed with families heading away from Tyre, carrying mattresses and suitcases.
The Israeli army assured on Wednesday that it had targeted “command centers of Hezbollah units”used by the pro-Iranian movement to attack “the citizens of Israel and the forces” Israelis.
She called the city a stronghold « important » of Hezbollah, even if it is another Shiite party and ally of Hezbollah, Amal, which is very established there.
“Alternative accommodation”
The Rissala rescue association, affiliated with Amal, participated in the rescue, according to one of its members, Rabih Issa. “We treated the injured on site, and transported some to hospitals in the region”he told AFP.
Israeli strike on the village of Al-Hawsh, in southern Lebanon, seen from the city of Tire / Kawnat HAJU / AFP
“We are working with municipalities to find alternative housing” for residents whose homes were destroyed, he said.
Before the conflict, Tire was home to more than 50,000 inhabitants, including a Christian minority. Already in recent weeks, with the escalation of violence, many families have left.
Questioned by AFP, Unesco said it was following “very closely the impact of the ongoing conflict on the site of Tyre. »
The city preserves important archaeological remains, mainly dating from Roman times.
“The imposing ruins of the Roman city and the medieval constructions of the Crusades on the ancient island, the necropolis on the mainland, the monumental road, the aqueduct and the hippodrome reflect the ancient glory of Tyre”according to the UNESCO website.
In a month of war in Lebanon, where Israel is carrying out ground operations in the south and massive airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to an AFP count based on official reports.
