JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Sunday it was investigating after a unit dropped unauthorised leaflets on a border area in southern Lebanon ordering residents to leave.

Lebanon’s state-run national news agency reported that Israel had dropped leaflets ordering residents out of the Wazzani area.

The Israeli military said dropping the leaflets was an unauthorised action by a unit that had not sought appropriate approval, and that there was no evacuation underway.

Tens of thousands of civilians have already fled villages and towns on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon frontier during months of cross border strikes, since Hezbollah movement stepped up attacks alongside the war in Gaza.

The leaflet, published in Arabic, warned that “anyone present in the area after this time will be considered a terrorist”

Israel dropped leaflets over a Lebanon border village on Sunday urging residents to leave, state-run media said, but Israel’s military said a brigade had taken the initiative without approval.

It was the first time Israelis had told residents of south Lebanon to evacuate in 11 months of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel over the Gaza invasion.

“The Israeli enemy dropped leaflets over Wazzani calling on those in the area and its surroundings to evacuate,” the official National News Agency said, referring to a southern border village.

Wazzani Mayor Ahmed al-Mohammed shared a picture of the leaflets that showed a map of the region with the areas marked for evacuation in red.

The leaflet read in Arabic: “To all residents and refugees living in the area of the camps, Hezbollah is firing from your region.

You must immediately leave your homes and head north of the Khiam region before 4pm (1300 GMT). Do not return to this area until the end of the war.”

It added: “Anyone present in this area after this time will be considered a terrorist.” Wazzani is an agricultural region where Syrians are often hired to work the land.

Asked about the incident, an Israeli military spokeswoman said the leaflets had been dropped by drone in an area from which rockets had been fired into northern Israel.

“This was an initiative of the 769 Brigade, it was not approved by the Northern Command. An investigation has been opened,” she added.

A cameraman collaborating with this news agency saw Syrian families preparing to evacuate their makeshift tents, with young children carrying belongings in plastic bags.

Some families relocated to an area about a couple of kilometres (miles) further north, said the cameraman, who saw children and women unloading a truck filled with mattresses.

“Some of the Syrian workers are leaving the area... But as for us, we are farmers and we have livestock. We cannot leave our land,” Mayor Mohammed said.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli aircraft regularly drop leaflets urging residents to evacuate before an attack.

On Saturday, Hezbollah’s second-in-command Naim Qassem warned that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more Israelis.

The cross-border violence since early October has killed 623 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 141 civilians, according to a tally.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2024