Nearly 500,000 Hezbollah supporters evacuate southern Lebanon as IDF intensifies strikes

Almost 500,000 Hezbollah supporters have been evacuated from their regular living spaces in southern Lebanon, Beirut, and some other spots, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

While over 400,000 have been evacuated from southern Lebanon, there is now a growing trend of many tens of thousands evacuating from Beirut after 26 IDF strikes in Hezbollah areas like Dahiya, which are turning into a ghost town.

These 24 attacks were part of around 115 aerial strikes in Lebanon in the last 24 hours.

On Wednesday, the IDF said it had launched 250 attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon since Monday, around 100 on Tuesday alone.

Though the IDF has not issued a cumulative total update of strikes, the number is likely close to 450 attacks based on the various updates provided.

While the volume of attacks remains far below the 1,300 attacks in a single day the IDF achieved in September 2024, it is far above the volume of much more limited attacks the IDF has undertaken since the November 2024 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

Typically, since the ceasefire, the IDF would only launch a few attacks each week, mainly at limited low-level targets in southern Lebanon or elsewhere in Lebanon where not too many Hezbollah operatives would be killed and where top Hezbollah officials were not targeted.

In contrast, the IDF has killed several top Hezbollah officials since Monday and has made it clear that Hezbollah's chief since fall 2024, Naim Qassem (who replaced Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine in fall 2024 after they were both assassinated) in in their crosshairs.

To date, Hezbollah has not killed a single Israeli and has caused minimal damage.

The IDF appears to be amplifying the number of evacuated Hezbollah supporters - as opposed to Sunni and Christian Lebanese groups, which it has tried to avoid attacking - in order to pressure the Lebanese terror group into disarming.

There were no updates from the IDF about Hezbollah rocket fire Friday morning, but the pace of Hezbollah rockets and drones being launched on Israel had jumped dramatically later in the week as compared to earlier in the week, even as the rate of Iranian ballistic missiles dropped significantly from Saturday-Sunday to the rest of the week, the IDF Home Front Command had said on Thursday.

According to the IDF on Thursday, northern residents spent most of the night in their safe rooms and bomb shelters because of consistent fire.

If on Monday, Hezbollah's attack on Israel was symbolic, it appears that in response to Jerusalem's much heavier crackdown on hundreds of attacks on Hezbollah, the terror group has now gone all in on its attacks against Israel.

IDF sources on Thursday said that it was even possible that this trend could continue with Iranian ballistic missiles dropping off even further, but the threat from Hezbollah expanding.

The IDF refused to share exact numbers due to the developing security situation.

However, at its height in fall 2024, Hezbollah was launching around 100-250 rockets or drones against Israel per day, and the IDF said that even the spike in threats on Wednesday had not approached those numbers, suggesting aerial threats of more in the dozens per day.

One reason Hezbollah has not yet reached its previous high of threats (though the IDF said this could potentially get worse) is that the military was quickly able to seize southern Lebanon, including cutting off Hezbollah from firing rockets south of the Litani River.

This means that most of its short-range rockets and mortars cannot reach Israel, whereas in fall 2024, it took several weeks of a massive invasion by the IDF to achieve that tactical and strategic position.