TYRE, Lebanon: Israeli strikes on Wednesday pounded Lebanon’s Tyre, an ancient coastal city which boasts a UNESCO World Heritage site, leaving swathes of its center in ruins.
The raids, among the worst since the start of the Israel-Hezbollah war last month, hit the “heart of Tyre,” said Rana, a resident who asked to only use her first name over security concerns.
“The whole city shook,” said Rana, after fleeing to the seafront following an Israeli military warning for people to evacuate much of Tyre’s center in the morning.
Thick black plumes of smoke were seen rising from several neighborhoods, with parts of the evacuation area just 500 meters (yards) from the city’s ancient ruins.
The strikes caused “massive destruction and serious damage to homes, infrastructure, buildings, shops and cars,” said the official National News Agency.
AFP footage showed entire neighborhoods buried under rubble.
The Israeli army struck “command and control complexes of various Hezbollah units,” according to a post from the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, on social media platform X.
Adraee described Tyre as an “important” Hezbollah stronghold, although Amal, an ally of the Iran-backed group, was believed to hold more sway there.
Bilal Kashmar of Tyre’s disaster management unit said seven building were completely levelled and more than 400 apartments in their vicinity damaged in the strikes.
Four streets were completely blocked by debris, he told AFP, adding that at least two people were left wounded after most residents fled.
Before Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire over the border last year, at least 50,000 people lived in Tyre, a vibrant city home to both Christians and Muslims.
The city was emptied of most of its population when Israel’s heavy bombardment began last month.
Only 14,500 remained there on Tuesday, Kashamr said.
But the city saw a fresh exodus on Wednesday as people began to escape immediately after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for four neighborhoods at 8:00 am (0500 GMT).
Emergency teams drove around the city, urging people to evacuate over megaphones, a video journalist collaborating with AFP said.
An AFP photographer in the city of Sidon, further north, saw dozens of cars on the coastal highway filled with families carrying mattresses, suitcases and clothes.
“Some families, who had not left the city of Tyre before, began leaving their homes to stay clear of areas that the Israeli enemy threatened to target,” NNA said.
Civil defense teams helped transport elderly people and people with limited mobility “to safe areas,” the NNA added.
The Risala Scouts, rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah ally Amal, deployed ambulances to targeted areas to transport wounded civilians to nearby hospitals.
“We are working on providing alternative housing with municipalities,” said Rabih Issa, an official with the organization.
Tyre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is home to important archaeological sites, mainly from Roman times.
Kashmar of Tyre’s disaster management unit said there has yet to be a damage assessment for heritage sites.
However, “damage is possible,” he said, explaining that one strike hit less than 50 meters away from one of the city’s ruins.
UNESCO said it was “closely following the impact of the ongoing conflict on the World Heritage site of Tyre” using remote sensing tools and satellite imagery.
On September 23, Israel launched an intensive air campaign in Lebanon, after almost a year of cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah over the Gaza war.
Since then, at least 1,552 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, although the real number is likely to be higher due to data gaps.