After 40 rockets launched from Lebanon on Sunday morning, IDF drops leaflets advising Lebanese residents to evacuate
After a barrage of some 40 rockets was fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon at the northern Galilee Panhandle and Golan Heights on Sunday morning, an IDF drone reportedly dropped leaflets in southern Lebanon warning residents to evacuate the area.
Lebanese news outlets – including the Lebanese News Agency – reported that Israel had dropped leaflets over the village of al-Wazani in the south of the country, calling on residents of the area to evacuate. The Qatari channel Al-Arabi reported that the drone that dropped the Arabic-language leaflets fell in Lebanese territory.
The leaflets read: “Hezbollah is firing from your area, you must leave your homes immediately, move north of the town of Al-Khiam by 4:00 P.M., and do not return until the end of the war. Anyone found in this area after this hour will be considered a terrorist element.”
The northern brigade is responsible for dispersing leaflets by drone, however, there has been no official IDF order to evacuate residents. According to Israeli media, the move is an “influence operation,” designed to keep the civilian population out of the area while the IDF responds.
Rocket sirens were heard throughout the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights on Sunday morning as Hezbollah launched a series of retaliatory attacks against targets across Israel’s northern border communities.
Hezbollah claimed it targeted an Israeli military base with dozens of Katyusha rockets in response to IDF airstrikes in Lebanon on Saturday. The IDF airstrikes were in response to two separate barrages of rockets targeting the northern Galilee city of Safed.
Two fire crews worked to extinguish a fire that spread near Ramat Trump in the central Golan Heights as a result of rocket impacts from the Hezbollah launches.
Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for the suicide drone attack near Metula earlier on Sunday morning, claiming it was targeting a group of soldiers in the area. The IDF said the drone hit an uninhabited area and there were no reports of damage.
On Sunday morning, the Upper Galilee and Golan Regional Council warned that residents should stay near protected areas, avoid gatherings, and reduce movement in the area until further notice. It was also decided to postpone the opening of schools for the day, in accordance with a situational assessment by IDF Home Front Command.
Safed Mayor Yossi Kakon spoke with Radio 103FM on Sunday morning about the difficult situation in the city.
“They try to maintain a routine but it’s not really routine, there are mental, emotional and physical problems,” Kakon said.
“We want to understand why no one came to Safed. The defense minister and the prime minister never spoke to me,” he stated. “Ministers come here, officers from time to time, they’re nice, there’s a good dialogue, but nothing happens.”
Middle East security analyst Seth Frantzman said the repeated Hezbollah rocket attacks are proof that Israel’s current strategy of deterrence is not working.
Knesset Member Eli Dellal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party criticized the government’s response after joining a tour of the northern border.
“I have to say the government has literally lost the North,” Dellal said. “True, I am part of a faction, part of a coalition, and I also say, not everything is clear to us. But whatever the reason, it cannot be that a state abandons its citizens in the north in this way.”
Last week, Netanyahu announced that Israel is preparing for “a broad campaign of one intensity or another” on the northern front in response to Hezbollah aggression.
The Security Cabinet is expected to designate “returning residents to the north” as an official war objective at its upcoming meeting.
