Hezbollah Threatens: Any Strike on Beirut’s Dahiya Will Be Met With Fire at Haifa and Tel Aviv; IDF Issues Evacuation Warnings

The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, issued a warning this morning (Wednesday) to residents of the villages of Arzi and al-Zrariyeh in the Sidon area, as well as the village of Mazraat Kouthariyat al-Riz north of Tyre. The statement said that "in light of Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement and its deliberate harm to the Israeli home front, the IDF is compelled to act against them with force, especially in your area. The IDF does not intend to harm you".

Adraee also called on residents to evacuate immediately northward to the Zahrani River and warned that "anyone near Hezbollah operatives, facilities, or weapons is putting his life at risk." At the same time, reports in Lebanon said a Hezbollah terrorist had been eliminated on a road in the Deir al-Zahrani area in the south of the country.

The warnings come after U.S. President Donald Trump in recent days succeeded in halting an Israeli strike that had been planned for the Dahiya district in Beirut. Even so, Hezbollah officials said that from their perspective, there has been no change in the rules of the confrontation, and they are rejecting the understandings meant to prevent further escalation.

Mahmoud Qomati, deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, addressed Defense Minister ישראל כ"ץ’s threats yesterday in an interview with Al-Araby channel. According to him, "the equation of Dahiya in exchange for communities in the north cannot pass under any circumstances. It cannot be that fire toward the north stops in return for Dahiya not being attacked. From the outset, the campaign has been in full swing, and the horizon remains open."

Qomati added: "We officially informed the relevant parties that this is a failed equation and impossible to implement from the start."

He went on to threaten: "The Israeli enemy must understand that if it decides to renew its aggression in Dahiya, Beirut, and the areas that have remained outside the circle of attacks in the recent period, and expands its assaults, it must take into account that the equation will become ‘Dahiya and Beirut in exchange for Haifa and Tel Aviv.’"

According to him, "therefore, it would be better for it not to expand this equation. It would be better for it not to bring Dahiya into any equation, because the response to an attack on Dahiya will not be fire only at the communities in the north, but at deeper and more significant targets."