Israel orders more than 500,000 people to evacuate Beirut’s southern suburbs

Israel orders more than 500,000 people to evacuate Beirut’s southern suburbs Instruction comes as Israel continues to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launches retaliatory strikes Middle East crisis – live updates The Israeli military has ordered the entire population of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate, as it continued to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and US bases across the region. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs – more than 500,000 people – to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately”, before Israel launched airstrikes on what he described as Hezbollah targets. The area covered by the order included several hospitals and government ministries. Meanwhile, Donald Trump claimed that he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war. Trump said Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of the late supreme leader – the country’s head of state and commander-in-chief – would be an “unacceptable” choice. “We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future,” Trump told Reuters. “We don’t have to go back every five years and do this again and again … somebody that’s going to be great for the people, great for the country.” Iran expanded its campaign of strikes, firing more ballistic missiles towards Israel, striking an airport in Azerbaijan , and raising fears that the conflict – now affecting 14 countries across the Middle East and beyond – could spread further. Thursday’s sweeping evacuation order for southern Beirut was unprecedented in its scale: even during the 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024, no evacuation order so broad was issued. The order provoked panic in Beirut as people tried to flee the affected areas. Traffic was at a standstill throughout the city and thousa...