At least seven hospitals in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital are in no-go zones imposed by the Israeli military, including Al Rasool Al Azzam Hospital and St. Therese Hospital, a CNN analysis of Israeli military evacuation orders found.
The Unprotected Zones, a group of residential areas in Beirut’s southern suburbs that are under Hezbollah’s control, cover an area of nearly 9 square kilometers (3.4 sq mi).
CNN examined a total of 39 evacuation orders, including the night of October 6, issued in posts on Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Arab spokesman Avichay Adraee X since September 27.
Typically, the posts warn residents to evacuate specific buildings planned to be targeted “immediately” and flee to areas beyond a 500-meter radius of the target. Satellite images embedded in posts show target buildings in red.
In the past 10 days, such warnings have preceded airstrikes, sometimes by no more than a few minutes. In other cases, notably two strikes that struck inside Beirut’s city limits for the first time since the 2006 war, no such warnings were issued. CNN reached out to the Israeli military for comment at the time, but did not receive a response.
CNN verified the locations of 39 buildings identified by the Israeli military as being close to Hezbollah targets as of the night of October 6. The public was ordered to evacuate. It adds up to 8.9 square kilometers (3.4 sq mi) to the southern suburbs of the city, known as Dahiyeh.
East of Dahiye It has been the focus of most reported airstrikes so far, with some striking very close to Lebanon’s only public airport.
The Israeli military has yet to issue guidance to residents on when they can return to affected areas.
CNN also found that in some cases the infographics the Israeli military shared with its evacuation orders were inaccurate. The graphics appear to illustrate a 500-meter zone around the target buildings in which residents must evacuate for their own safety — with a red circle around the highlighted building and a dotted line that reads “500 meters” in Arabic. In fact, the radii of the highlighted buffer zones measured only 100 meters in those cases. This applied to six separate evacuation orders before the IDF stopped including charts of no-go zones in their graphics. CNN has contacted the IDF for comment.
