Beirut: As many as eight people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a well-known housing area in Lebanon’s Tyre city on Tuesday, June 9, the civil defence in southern Lebanon told Al Jazeera. The attack comes moments after the Israeli military issued forced displacement directives for the city, including the Christian quarter, which has so far been spared in the destructive airstrikes on the port city.
Last week, Israel warned the Christian neighbourhoods in Tyre that it believed Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled to those areas as Israeli strikes hammered the Mediterranean coastal area over the past two weeks.
After last week’s 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. But Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, posted on X on Monday that the Israeli military “will have to act against their terrorist activities in the neighbourhood soon.”
Lebanon’s Civil Defence said three people were injured, including two from their personnel in an Israeli raid on the town of Sharqiya in southern Lebanon.
A statement from the Civil Defence said its teams were currently working to ensure an injured person was extracted and provided with first aid. It added that during the rescue operation, the teams were targeted in a second drone strike, Israel’s double-tap method, resulting in their staff sustaining minor injuries.
The rescue teams later evacuated the elderly residents as others fled Tyre following a secondary warning of forced displacement from the Israeli military. Civil Defence workers are “evacuating the vulnerable to safe locations,” the National News Agency reported, adding that locals continue to escape the threatened areas.
The situation remains tense, as the city’s northern part was subjected to further strikes.
Lebanese, Pakistani army chiefs discuss regional security situation
The Lebanese army chief on Tuesday met with his Pakistani counterpart Field Marshal Asim Munir, during which the two exchanged views on the evolving regional security situation.
The military’s media affairs wing said in a statement that Lebanese armed forces’ Commander-in-Chief General Rodolphe Haykal called on Chief of Defence Forces Munir at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.
During the meeting, they exchanged views on “matters of mutual interest, evolving regional security environment, defence cooperation and prospects for enhancing bilateral military relations”.
“The discussions focused on strengthening professional interactions, training cooperation and institutional linkages between the armed forces of the two countries,” it stated.
Munir reaffirmed the importance Pakistan attaches to its relations with Lebanon and underscored the army’s commitment to expanding defence collaboration with the Lebanese Armed Forces, the statement said.
The visit reflects the shared commitment of both armed forces to fostering closer military-to-military cooperation, the statement added.
At least 2 Iranian military members killed in Israeli attack on Iran
Iranian state television on Tuesday reported that at least two members of an air defence unit were killed in the Israeli attacks that rocked the country the day before.
The report represented the first time Iran acknowledged fatalities from the attacks, which have put the Mideast on edge and represented the biggest blow yet to the straining ceasefire in the Iran war.
Iranian state TV identified the men as Bahman Hosseini and Ali Reza Abiri, without offering a rank for them. It said they would be buried in a city outside of Tehran, suggesting they had been posted near the capital.
(With inputs from AP)
