Israel extending ‘Gaza playbook’ to Lebanon, charity warns 

Israel is exporting its “Gaza playbook” to Lebanon, a nonprofit group has warned, as the Israeli military continues to attack the country after ordering the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians.

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said on Friday that Israel’s bombings and forced displacement orders for all of southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut, “are instilling widespread fear among civilians”.

“What we are witnessing in Lebanon is the unmistakable extension of the Israeli military playbook used in Gaza,” said Steve Cutts, CEO of the UK-based charity.

That includes “collective punishment, forced displacement, and the deliberate terrorising of civilian populations, including already traumatised Palestinian communities,” Cutts said in a statement.

The Israeli military issued a forced displacement order on Wednesday for all of southern Lebanon, prompting tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes and communities under threat of attack.

A day later, it issued a similar order for the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, as Israel expanded its intensified air and ground offensive in the country.

Intensified fighting between Israel and Hezbollah resumed on Monday after the Lebanese group launched rockets towards Israeli territory following the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran.

At least 217 people have been killed and 798 others wounded in Israeli attacks across Lebanon since Monday, according to the latest figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Human rights groups have raised the alarm over the Israeli forced displacement orders, stressing that many families have nowhere to go as Lebanon’s shelters are full.

“We’ve seen people sleeping on the street, sleeping on the Corniche [in Beirut], sleeping in schools that have been converted into reception centres,” Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reported from the Lebanese capital on Friday.

“People want to know how long they’re going to have to do this, [how long they’ll have] to be away from home, and the authorities have not been able to tell them.”

The Israeli military has routinely issued similar orders in its genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to move multiple times throughout Israel’s more than two-year bombardment of the enclave.

In September last year, the Israeli army issued a forced displacement order for the entirety of Gaza City, prompting international condemnation.

“The order … is cruel, unlawful, and further compounds the genocidal conditions of life that Israel is inflicting on Palestinians,” Human Rights Watch said at the time.

Israeli leaders have also compared the country’s escalating offensive in Lebanon this week with its war on Gaza.

On Thursday, after the forced evacuation order was issued for the southern suburbs of Beirut, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel planned to make the Dahiyeh area “like Khan Younis”.

A city in southern Gaza, Khan Younis – like most of the Strip – has been decimated in Israel’s war.